Pranahita-Chevella: Congress Wants Assembly Session

The Leader of the Opposition in the Telangana Council Mohammed Ali Shabbir on Monday demanded that the Telangana government convene a special session of the Assembly and Council to take a final decision on the Pranahita-Chevella project.

Addressing the media at the CLP office, Shabbir Ali accused Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao of delaying the project only for political motives.

He said that Pranahita-Chevella had all clearances from the Centre and all disputes with Maharashtra had been resolved. The project report was prepared by WAPCO, and several experts had given their nod. The previous UPA government had almost completed the process to declare Pranahita-Chevella a national project.

Yet, and though nearly Rs 10,000 crores had been spent on the project, not even the land acquisition process was over yet.

"Instead of simply executing the project, KCR has been finding reasons to delay the project," he alleged.

Referring to the MoU signed between the erstwhile united Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra, Shabbir Ali said that all the agreements still stood valid. KCR did not mind giving away seven mandals of the Khammam district to Andhra Pradesh for the Polavaram project, but a hue and cry was being raised over the loss of 14 villages to Maharashtra due to Pranahita-Chevella, he said.

"Ours is a democratic country. Parties win and lose elections. But the government and its machinery remain the same. Change of the party-in-power in a state does not impact the agreements and MoUs signed between two state governments," Shabbir Ali explained, while asking KCR not to mislead the people with his weird statements.

Describing Pranahita-Chevella as the heartbeat of Telangana, he said that the project would resolve water scarcity on 16.4 lakh acres in the Adilabad, Karimnagar, Warangal, Nizamabad, Medak, Nalgonda and Ranga Reddy districts.

He said that any change in the design would delay the project further as fresh permissions would be needed for the same. Five out of the seven members of the committee of retired Chief Engineers too opined that there was no need for a change in the present design of Pranahita-Chevella.

To end the impasse, KCR should immediately convene an all-party meeting or an Assembly and Council session on the issue, he demanded.

Shabbir Ali also ridiculed KCR's allegation that crores of rupees were swindled in the name of the Pranahita-Chevella project.

"KCR is in power. He should immediately order a high-level probe to punish the guilty," Shabbir Ali said. "The Congress will not allow the public money already spent on Pranahita-Chevella to go waste. Besides resorting to an agitation, the Congress will also go to the Supreme Court on the issue," he said. (NSS)