KCR Slams Congress Charges Over Maharashtra Pact

Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao today slammed Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) president N Uttam Kumar Reddy for claiming that the previous united Andhra Pradesh government had already entered an agreement with Maharashtra to construct a reservoir on Tummidihatti and that the Godavari pact was merely a rehash of the same.

The CM challenged the TPCC president to substantiate its claim.

On his return to Hyderabad from Maharashtra this morning, Rao said that he would quit politics if any evidence was found validiting the allegations that were being levelled against him and his government.

Rao added that if the two leaders failed to substantiate their claims, he would take legal action against them.

"If the claims are found to be empty, they will face prison," he warned.

KCR also fumed at the Congress for claiming that 98 lakh acres of land had been irrigated during its regime.

"If this is true, why is there a constant drought problem in Telangana?" he demanded to know. "The State is largely unirrigated and parched due to the failure of successive united AP governments. The Congress supported the pre-bifurcation Andhra chief ministers and ended up ruining the Telangana region. Now it is trying to belittle our effort to rejuvenate the land," he alleged.

"In a few days, I will disclose the corrupt practices of some of the leaders of the Telangana Congress during the previous regimes on air," he warned.

KCR asserted that Telangana, with the help of Maharashtra and other neighbouring States, would progress at a steady pace, and that nothing could stop it.

In another report, contrary to the TPCC president's claim, Congress leader and former irrigation minister Ponnala Laxmaiah spoke up on the issue and distanced his party from Reddy's views.

He stated that the Congress, to his knowledge, never inked any agreement with the Maharashtra government on the Thammidihatti barrage. Even if it did, Laxmaiah said, the CM could not have possibly known about it as such undertakings were not generally shared by the previous governments.