Hyderabad: BRS working president KT Rama Rao said chief minister A Revanth Reddy has confidence on his governance and he can get re-elected, he must immediately dissolve the assembly and face the by polls. He said Revanth Reddy’s own surveys revealed that the BRS would bag 78 seats if the assembly elections are held now.Addressing a news conference at Telangana Bhavan on Saturday, KTR said Revanth Reddy should swear on Lord Rama that he never conducted any surveys in the state on his governance and people’s mood. “If Revanth truly has confidence in his administration, he should prove it by facing local body elections, by-elections in constituencies of defected MLAs, or by dissolving the assembly and going back to the people,” he said.On the Kaleshwaram project and pumping of water, the BRS working president said the BRS is demanding the state govt to lift the water from Kannepally pump house, not from Medigadda, which is about 14 to 15 kms from Medigadda to save the farming community and also prevailing El Nino conditions.“Revanth Reddy is conspiring to push Telangana toward drought while lakhs of cusecs of water are flowing away downstream. Even without any connection to Medigadda, the entire Godavari basin could still be supplied with water for farmers and the public through Kaleshwaram, but CM’s foolishness, lack of understanding, and hatred for the previous govt were drying up crops and hurting people,” he said.He criticized Revanth Reddy for allowing Telangana’s waters to be released downstream for the sake of his political mentor while people, retired engineers, and political parties were demanding that water be lifted to avert a coming drought.“The CM is misleading people by dragging Bhadrachalam and Lord Rama into the issue under the pretext of flood fears, despite there being no connection to Kaleshwaram waters,” KTR said.He said that in this situation, reservoirs in the Godavari basin are already more than half empty, while lakhs of cusecs of water are flowing downstream near Kannepalli. He warned that this waste could continue until October.He said that if the Congress govt truly cares about farmers and Telangana, it should start the pump house at Kannepalli and lift this water for the next 100 days, which would green the entire Godavari basin. KTR said that retired engineers from Telangana had recently written to the CM clearly explaining the same.KTR said that even without any connection to Medigadda and without shutting even a single gate there, whenever the river flow near Kannepalli reaches 93 meters, large quantities of water can be lifted. He claimed there is scope to pump one TMC of water every day, roughly equal to the volume of Hussain Sagar.The BRS leader said that the river is currently flowing at nearly 97 meters near Kannepalli and that simply pressing a button to start the pumps could protect Telangana from drought. “Over the next 100 days, at least 200 TMC of water could be stored in reservoirs and projects across the Godavari basin including Mid Manair, Lower Manair, Mallanna Sagar, Kondapochamma Sagar, Ananthagiri, Malkapet, and Baswapur as reservoirs that could all be filled, helping half of Telangana avoid both agricultural and drinking water crises,” he said.He accused Revanth of falsely claiming that Bhadrachalam and 44 villages would be inundated, even though they are far removed from Medigadda. He said that despite withstanding an unprecedented flood of 28.5 lakh cusecs — the highest in the past 500 years — Medigadda remained firm, yet Revanth is now falsely saying it cannot bear even one lakh cusecs.KTR warned that if Revanth still does not start the pump houses and lift water, farmers across the state will revolt. He said this Congress govt would be remembered as anti-people, and Revanth would go down in history as a betrayer of Telangana and its farming community for the damage being done to the irrigation sector.ends/
