Former minister and APCC Media Committee chairman Mohammad Ali Shabbir, on Monday, dismissed the allegations of opposition parties that the state government was going ahead with the Pranahita-Chevella project without having any clarity about it.
Shabbir Ali said that allegations by the Telugu Desam and Telangana Rashtra Samithi against the state government were baseless, and that the government had signed a pact with the Maharashtra government after studying even minute details.
Talking to media persons at Gandhi Bhavan, Shabbir Ali rubbished the allegations of TDP MP T Devender Goud that the government was going ahead for the construction of the project only for political mileage in the ensuing by-elections.
He also refuted the charges that about Rs. 1,600 crore has already been embezzled for the construction of the project by the YSR government. He said that the TDP has been opposing irrigation projects only for political gains. He also slammed the Telangana Rashtra Samithi for opposing the project, which, he said, would provide irrigation facilities to 16.40 lakh acres in 7 districts of Telangana region.
Terming the TRS' criticism against the government as "unfortunate", he said that the people of the region would "understand" the TRS' political game plans and teach the party a fitting lesson.
Stating that the TRS was against the development of the Telangana region, he said that the party just wants elections in order to improve its numbers in the Assembly.
He also condemned the YSR Congress for trying to "hijack" the project by claiming that former chief minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy was the one who laid the foundation for the project. According to Shabbir Ali, YSR had implemented the Pranahita-Chevella project as it was promised in the Congress manifesto.
Stating that although TDP president Chandrababu Naidu, KCR and Jaganmohan Reddy had undergone "training" in the Congress in the beginning of their political careers, he remarked that the party had never trained Jagan in crime.
Meanwhile, Twenty-Point Program chairman N Tulasi Reddy asked Jaganmohan Reddy to awear on the Bible that he had no links with Mangali Krishna, who was convicted in the suitcase bomb murder of TDP leader Paritala Ravi. Congress spokesperson K Mruthyamajayam also spoke. (INN)