Harish Rao accuses CM Revanth of misleading Telangana on Banakacherla project

LatestPoliticsTelangana
By HNH Web Desk 2
Banakacherla project

Hyderabad: BRS MLA and former Minister T Harish Rao on Thursday accused Chief Minister Revanth Reddy of misleading Telangana on the Banakacherla project and displaying a lack of understanding of inter-state water issues.

Addressing reporters at Telangana Bhavan, Harish Rao criticised Revanth Reddy’s recent remarks and presentations on the Banakacherla issue, alleging they revealed basic ignorance of river basin geography. He said the state government had raised repeated objections with the Centre over the Andhra Pradesh project, while the Chief Minister had trivialised the issue through flawed analogies and unfounded statements.

He claimed that both Revanth Reddy and Minister Uttam Kumar Reddy exposed their lack of knowledge through a PowerPoint presentation that, according to him, contained multiple factual inaccuracies. He described the situation as shameful for Telangana, stating that the leadership failed to understand even the location of the Banakacherla project or the basin in which Devadula lies.

Harish Rao said Andhra Pradesh had been actively pursuing Banakacherla for six months, engaging with the Union government and Ministers, while the Telangana Chief Minister remained unaware of these developments. He alleged that Revanth Reddy had chosen to attack the opposition rather than take steps to stop the project.

He further criticised the Chief Minister for politicising a serious water dispute, alleging that Revanth Reddy used comments by Ravi Chandra as a pretext to divert attention. He also accused the Chief Minister’s advisor Aditya Das of making inaccurate claims about the project’s location, stating that Banakacherla is in Nandyal district, not Prakasam.

Responding to Revanth Reddy’s claim of being a “son of Nallamala,” Harish Rao mocked the statement, asking whether Nallamala belonged to Telangana or Andhra Pradesh. He described the Chief Minister as irresponsible and unfit to lead on water policy.

The BRS MLA questioned Revanth Reddy’s authority to offer large volumes of water to Andhra Pradesh, asking whether Telangana was his personal estate. He accused the Chief Minister of continuing to operate under the influence of Andhra leaders and aligning with the legacy of Chandrababu Naidu.

Harish Rao pointed to previous allocations under united Andhra Pradesh and said the BRS government had secured permissions for 946 TMC. He warned that Revanth Reddy’s remarks would only encourage Andhra Pradesh to accelerate work on Banakacherla.

He concluded by contrasting KCR’s record with the current government, noting that the former Chief Minister had written to the Jal Shakti Ministry asserting Telangana’s right to 1,950 TMC of water from the 3,000 TMC reaching the sea each year. Revanth Reddy, he said, had undermined this by carelessly conceding the entire volume to Andhra Pradesh.

 

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