TS To Be Drought-free With Maharashtra Pact: Jagadish

With the Maharashtra government coming forward to help the TRS government, some long-pending irrigation projects will be completed soon to set Telangana free of its chronic drought problems, Telangana Energy Minister G Jagadish Reddy said.

Reddy told the media at Telangana Bhavan that Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao had worked with his Maharashtra counterpart Devendra Fadnavis to find a solution to the controversial irrigation projects, and that a final agreement to be reached by the two Chief Ministers on March 8 would relieve the State of its drought and drinking water problems permanently. The pact would help complete the Medigadda, Rajapet, Chanaka-Korata, Penpahad and Thummidihatti projects, Reddy said, and pave the way for a drought-free Telangana.

He also expressed contempt for the previous governments which he claimed deliberately ignored the plight of Telangana. He said that Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu had only worsened the problem through his Babli fight. The previous governments could not prevent 40 other projects from coming up, he said. Unlike the earlier Chief Ministers, KCR chose to have friendly discussions in a cordial atmosphere, and that worked, Reddy claimed.

The TRS government was determined to spend adequate funds to deliver a paradigm shift in agriculture and irrigation, Reddy said, as exemplified by the Chief Minister recently releasing Rs 300 crores to help the State tide over its drinking water problem.