Chandrababu Naidu No 1 Traitor Of Telangana: TRS

Telangana caretaker Irrigation Minister T Harish Rao today launched a scathing attack on Telugu Desam Party supremo and Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu for "deceiving the Telangana people by persistently attempting to stall irrigation projects".

Addressing the media at Telangana Bhavan in Hyderabad, Rao accused Naidu of being the No 1 traitor of Telangana, and demanded an explanation from the latter in a letter comprising of 19 questions.

"We have serious objections to the TDP campaigning in the Telangana Assembly elections as Chandrababu Naidu has adopted double standards in the case of Telangana irrigation projects such as the Palamur lift irrigation scheme. We demand that Naidu give answers to all our specific questions," Rao said.

Rao accused the TDP chief of turning anti-Telangana after becoming the Chief Minister of residual Andhra Pradesh, and claimed that the latter had written a number of letters to the Centre against the irrigation projects in Telangana.

"During the fight for statehood for Telangana, Naidu did everything to stall the movement. Till the last minute before the bifurcation, he tried his best at the national level to thwart the formation of Telangana. Even after the bifurcation, the TDP chief consistently tried to sabotage Telangana irrigation projects. He strongly opposed all the main irrigation projects in Telangana like Kaleshwaram, Palamur and others, and mounted pressure on the Centre to stall them by citing that they were illegal," Rao claimed.

Rao also alleged that Naidu had hurt the people of Telangana, especially its farmers, by depriving them of electricity unethically as soon as the bifurcation took place. "The AP CM tried to mess with the terms of the A P Reorganization Act, 2014, by first terminating his state's agreements with private electricity companies and then claiming that the state had a shortage of power, and using that to take away the Seeleru power plant and cut a supply of 2,465 MW of power to Telangana unilaterally, causing our state a loss of Rs 500 crores and a shortage of power. As per the Reorganisation Act Telangana was entitled to its fair share of power from Andhra Pradesh, but Naidu manipulated things to portray AP as power-starved to take away Seeleru. The fact that there was no shortage of power for AP is clear from the AP government too filing its bid later to supply electricity to Telangana at a higher price. How could Chandrababu Naidu's government offer to sell electricity to Telangana if it fell short of power supply?" he sought to know.

Warning the people of Telangana against voting for the Mahakootami that the TDP was a part of, Rao said, "In a democracy, any party or individual has a right to participate in the electoral process. However, if the Congress-led alliance goes on to gain power, Naidu will exploit Telangana in the irrigation, power and other sectors, to favour Andhra Pradesh."

The TRS leader however exuded confidence that the "nefarious designs" of the TDP president would not work in Telangana, and that the people would teach him a fitting lesson in the upcoming polls.

Along with his open letter, Harish Rao also released copies of letters written by Chandrababu Naidu and the AP government opposing irrigation projects in Telangana.