Dubbing Chief Minister, Jagan Mohan Reddy, as a traitor of Rayalaseema region, TDP supremo and former chief minister, N Chandrababu Naidu, on Wednesday felt that the region will prosper well only if Jagan is eased out of power.
Strongly condemning the rescinding of 102 projects in Rayalaseema with a single GO, Naidu told media persons here that the earlier TDP government has spent Rs 12,411 cr in five years on the projects in the region while the YSRCP has till now spent a meagre amount of Rs 2011 cr.
The monthly remuneration now being paid to the number of advisors to the Government and the funds being spent for publicity are far more higher than the amount spent in Rayalaseema, the TDP supremo remarked. Naidu demanded an unconditional apology by Jagan to the farmers of Rayalaseema for deceiving them.
The region faces acute water scarcity and thus the Telugu Ganga was planned by the then chief minister, the late NT Rama Rao, to overcome this distress, the TDP president maintained. To ensure that enough water be supplied to this drought-prone region, NTR convinced four chief ministers to get the surplus water from the Krishna river through the Telugu Ganga. After the Telugu Ganga, he planned Galeru Nagari and Handri Neeva to see to it that Rayalaseema becomes a fertile area, he said.
“After I came to power, Pattiseema was built to supply Krishna waters to Rayalaseema and this is the first step towards the interlinking of rivers which the whole country is now planning,” Naidu said. Even a blueprint was prepared on interlinking of rivers so that the whole State can be supplied water both for irrigation and for drinking purposes, he noted. A plan was formulated to supply water till Ichchapuram had the Polavaram been completed and this is nothing but the Srujala Sravanthi, the former chief minister stated.
Pointing out that the TDP government has spent Rs 68,293 cr on all the irrigation projects between 2014 and 2019, Naidu said that this Government has till now spent a mere 22,165 cr. The budgetary allocation for the irrigation sector during the TDP regime was 9.63 per cent while this Government had allocated only 2.35 per cent and this too only to pay commissions to the contractors, Naidu remarked.
The former chief minister feels that Jagan has no knowledge on the importance of the irrigation sector.
