Don't attend 'Mission Bhagiradha' event: Congress tells PM

Accusing Trs Government of misleading the Prime Minister, the Congress party on Thursday urged Narendra Modi not to launch the 'Mission Bhagiradha' scheme during his visit to Telangana on August 7.

In an open letter to the Prime Minister TPCC President N. Uttam Kumar Reddy and Leader of Opposition in Legislative Council Mohammed Ali Shabbir described the 'Mission Bhagiradha' as "Bogus Scheme". They claimed that the scheme was nothing but the distorted version of Moulana Abul Kalam Azad Sujala Sravanti, the scheme initiated by the then Congress Government in December 2008, to provide 30 TMC of Godavari River to Hyderabad for drinking purpose. In the first phase, of Rs. 3,350 crore project cost to bring 10 TMC of Godavari waters to Hyderabad, the State Government had spent Rs. 1955.83 crore while HUDCO has provided a loan of Rs. 1564 crore.

 "The project was scheduled for completion by March 2015. The works pertaining to laying of pipelines, pump houses, reservoirs and other works completed more than an year ago. Through those pipelines, it was proposed to provide drinking water to the villages enroute Ellampally-Hyderabad. Instead of sticking to the original design plan, the present government diverted Godavari water from Karimnagar to Gajwel, the constituency represented by Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao," said Uttam Kumar Reddy said in a press conference at Gandhi Bhavan today.

 The TPCC Chief said that the pipelines, reservoirs, pump houses and other infrastructure was constructed by the previous Congress regime and it was scheduled for launch in 2015. The present Trs Government only delayed it by a year to give an impression as if it created the entire infrastructure. To give legal sanctity to their moves, they invited the Prime Minister for the launch to inaugurate an existing project, he said. "This is highly shocking that the Trs Government is trying to involve you (the Prime Minister) in this trickestry,” he said.

Uttam Kumar Reddy said that the Congress was not against providing drinking water supply to Gajwel. However, by diverting the water meant for 70 villages of Karimnagar district and Hyderabad city, the Trs Government was doing injustice with majority of people. We request you to kindly seek complete information from the Intelligence or the State unit of your party on this project before launching the scheme. It will be highly inappropriate for the Prime Minister to launch a scheme which has got no clearances from the concerned authorities," he said in his letter to PM.

Shabbir Ali has strongly condemned the re-naming of the project from Moulana Abul Kalam Azad Sujala Sravanti to Mission Bhagiradha. He said that the previous Congress regime had named Pranahita Chevella project after Bharat Ratna Dr. B. R. Ambedkar and Godavari drinking water scheme after Bharat Ratna Moulana Abul Kalaam Azad. However, Trs Government changed them to Kaleshwaram and Mission Bhagiradha respectively.

The Congress leaders said that the people of Telangana have high expectations from the Prime Minister's maiden visit to the State. They said that the Prime Minister should made concrete announcements with regard to Railway Coach Factory at Qazipet, 4,000 MW NTPC power project and other assurances given in the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act.