Will Always Work For People: Uttam

Outgoing TPCC Chief, Nalgonda MP N Uttam Kumar Reddy, today stated that he would continue to fight for the protection of the interests of Telangana.

Addressing the media, the leader said that he would fight for the protection of the interests of Telangana in the Parliament, which is to convene from July 19.

He then thanked AICC head Sonia Gandhi and former president Rahul Gandhi for giving him the chance to work as TPCC chief for a long tenure of six-and-a-half years. He also thanked the two leaders for giving him the chance to serve as a Cabinet minister in undivided-Andhra Pradesh, as a five-time MLA, and an MP, stating that these opportunities had helped him serve the people and his party.

"I am well acquainted with the Congress leaders working at the mandal, constituency and district level across all 119 constituencies in the state and would like to thank every one of them for the love and affection they have shown towards me. AICC head Sonia Gandhi has appointed a new PCC chief, working presidents, senior vice-presidents, Campaign Committee conveners, a new election management committee as well as a new AICC Programme Implementation Committee. I would like to congratulate those who have been given the chance to serve Telangana and the Congress," Reddy said.

Talking about the party's strength in the state, he noted, "The Congress has a good presence in all 12,765 gram panchayats and 141 municipalities of Telangana. This is largely because of the sweat, blood, and tears of crores of ordinary party workers who have toiled to establish the party over the last several years. As I step down from the post of TPCC head, I salute the lakhs of Congress workers who have made huge sacrifices of both life and property enduring every type of government and police harassment over several decades in united Andhra Pradesh and now in Telangana to protect party and public interests."

The MP stated that he would, as always, be available round the clock, in person or through his mobile phone, to help and support any Congress workers in Telangana. He informed the party that he would be leaving for Bengaluru for a 10-day trip to the Jindal Nature Cure Centre and that he would then go to participate in the Monsoon session of the Lok Sabha, slated to start on July 19.

Reddy then addressed the raging water feud between Telangana and AP, and thundered, "Telangana was formed so its people could have abundant water and every other resource. Currently, however, the state government has been more unjust to the people of the region than even the preceding governments in united AP. Our state has suffered by losing its rightful share of river waters due to the negligence of the TRS government. The BJP-led Centre and the state government are directly responsible for this sorry state of affairs. The AP administration has taken up works to raise the capacity of the Pothireddypadu Lift Irrigation Scheme (LIS) from 40,000 cusecs to 88,000 cusecs, and it intends to draw about eight TMC of water from the Krishna. It has also taken up the Sangameswara LIS to draw another three TMC of water. On the whole, it looks as if Telangana will lose about 11 TMC of water due to this. Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao has "failed to stop" the works of AP's two "illegal" irrigation projects. He does not have the "moral right" to continue in office after being unable to protect the rights of the people."

"Due to AP’s LIS projects, the command area under the Nagarjuna Sagar will likely go dry. It should be known that CM KCR will be responsible for this. While the state is set to lose 11 TMC of water which flows through gravity without any cost, 3 TMC of water is lifted from the Godavari at a cost of Rs 1.18 lakh crores through the Kaleshwaram LIP. About Rs 10,000 crores per year will be needed to maintain the project. I will surely raise the issue of water sharing in the Parliament," the leader asserted.

He also claimed that Telangana occupied the number one position in terms of high per person debt growth in the country, and stated that this had occurred in the past seven-and-a-half year rule of the TRS.

Further, the MP accused the KCR regime of having pushed Telangana under a mountain of debt, and claimed, "Apart from direct borrowings, our state government has borrowed a lot through corporations. I wonder why the Centre did not react to this, and whether such borrowing is legal to begin with. It is shameful that the TRS government has indulged in exaggerating the estimates of the costs of the state's irrigation projects and has allowed its leaders to take 8% commission from the contractors in charge of the same. I have been stating this on the record for some time now and will raise this issue in the upcoming Parliament session, and also bring up the problem of unemployment. What is unfortunate is that the state had been formed to provide better employment to the youth of the region. However, under the TRS, unemployment in Telangana has doubled since 2014."

He called out the KCR regime for failing" to fulfil its promise to fill 50,000 vacancies in the government that was made about six months ago, and lambasted it further for claiming that it would provide an unemployment allowance of Rs 3,016 shortly and then not doing so.