“Congress and BRS MLAs exchange heated words in Telangana Assembly”

PTI, Feb 10, 2024, 8:19 AM IST

The ruling Congress and opposition BRS engaged in a war of words in the Legislative Assembly on Friday over irrigation, free bus travel for women and other poll ‘guarantees’.

Speaking during the motion of thanks to the Governor’s address, Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy said the BRS leaders claimed that party leader K Chandrasekhar Rao is highly knowledgeable and efficient but the Medigadda barrage of Kaleswaram project ended up suffering damage during BRS regime.

He said it was the previous BRS government which agreed in 2015 for Telangana’s share to be 299 TMC out of the undivided Andhra Pradesh share of 811 TMC in Krishna river, while letting neighbouring state get a share of 512 TMC.

He also hit out at the previous regime for ”failing to stop” over Andhra Pradesh police allegedly unauthorisedly entering the Nagarjuna Sagar project on Telangana soil in December last year and also over letting Andhra Pradesh take away Krishna river water, hurting the interests of the state.

The chief minister also took exception to the absence of opposition leader Chandrasekhar Rao during the debate.

Meanwhile, BRS MLA T Harish Rao alleged that the Congress government handed over projects on the Krishna river to the Krishna River Management Board (KRMB) which is against the interest of Telangana.

State Irrigation Minister N Uttam Kumar Reddy asserted that the ”government has not handed over the projects on the Krishna river to anyone and that there is no question of handing over”.

The KRMB was constituted as per the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act, 2014.

BRS MLA Palla Rajeshwar Reddy, who spoke earlier during the debate, said the free travel for women in RTC buses introduced by the Congress government affected the livelihood of auto drivers. He sought the government to come to the rescue of them.

State Legislative Affairs Minister D Sridhar Babu said the government would help the auto drivers financially as per the promise made during the assembly elections.