A day before presenting the white paper on irrigation projects in the Telangana Assembly, the ruling Congress on Sunday arranged a special presentation for its legislators.
Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy provided guidance to MLAs and MLCs on the debate over white paper after Irrigation Minister N. Uttam Kumar Reddy made the powerpoint presentation.
The programme, held at Praja Bhavan, was attended by Deputy Chief Minister Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka, all ministers, MLAs and MLCs.
The ruling party legislators were given instructions on the issues to be raised during the debate. They were told to be ready to take the opposition Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) to task over acts of “omissions and commissions by the previous government in the matter of irrigation projects”.
The decisions to table white paper and have a debate on it during the ongoing Budget session come amid the row over handing over management of projects on Krishna river to Krishna River Management Board (KRMB).
Last week, Revanth Reddy had dared former Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao (KCR) and other BRS leaders to participate in the debate on irrigation projects. He lashed out at BRS for making an allegation that Congress government handed over control of Srisailam and Nagarjuna Sagar to KRMB to the detriment of state’s interests.
The Chief Minister alleged that it was the previous government which signed an agreement to hand over the projects to the Centre.
The BRS has called for ‘Chalo Nalgonda’ on February 13 to oppose handing over of projects to KRMB.
The BRS leaders from districts that come under Krishna basin including Mahabubnagar, Rangareddy, Khammam and Nalgonda have been told to make the protest a success.
KCR is likely to address the public meeting, the first since the BRS lost power to Congress two months ago.