Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders, particularly its national vice-president and in-charge of party affairs in Karnataka D.K. Aruna, have no moral right to speak on the interests of farmers under Rajolibanda Diversion Scheme (RDS) ayacut in Telangana, Minister for Finance and Health T. Harish Rao said here on Saturday.
Mr. Harish Rao alleged that Ms. Aruna was silent when Rayalaseema leaders such as Byreddy Rajasekhar Reddy and Y. Balanagi Reddy went along with their supporters and damaged the sluices of RDS anicut to prevent flow of water to Telangana and she was in Congress then.
It was also Ms. Aruna, as a minister in the Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy Cabinet, who performed puja for siphoning off Krishna water to non-basin areas with the help of expansion of Pothireddypadu head regulator and projects such as Handri-Neeva, heaping injustice on Telangana by denying it rightful share in the river water, he said.
Stating that it was TRS that had first raised the issue over injustice being done to Telangana in case of RDS water, Mr. Rao said it was after formation of Telangana that ₹70 crore was released to Karnataka for increasing the height of RDS Anicut and modernisation of canal in Karnataka limits to ensure proper water supply to the ayacut in Telangana. However, Rayalaseema leaders and Andhra Pradesh Government did not allow Karnataka to take up works.
As a result, Telangana Government had taken up Thummilla lift irrigation scheme with ₹783 crore and completed it in a record 10 months to give water to the RDS ayacut in the State. Against an anicut designed for 87,500 acres, about 55,000 acres was getting water now against hardly 20,000 acres in the past. He described BJP State president Bandi Sanjay’s talk to call Ms. Aruna as “RDS Arunamma” as the millennium joke as she had never made any effort to get allocated water to RDS ayacut in Telangana although she represented Gadwal thrice.
Mr. Harish Rao suggested that BJP leaders get national status to any of the projects in Telangana, particularly Palamuru-Rangareddy in combined Mahabubnagar where they were on a padayatra now, in case they had any sincerity for Telangana. He sought to know why such a status could not be given to a project in Telangana when Ken-Betwa of Bundelkhand and Upper Bhadra of Karnataka were given it.
