Harish Rao calls out Revanth Reddy govt over systematic sabotage of Telangana’s water rights

BRS deputy floor leader and former Irrigation Minister T Harish Rao tore into the ruling Congress party’s allegations, accusing it of committing a historic and ongoing betrayal of Telangana’s river water rights, particularly in the Krishna River basin. The Revanth Reddy government was being subservient to its Andhra mentors and systematically mortgaging Telangana’s future, he charged.

In a detailed three-hour presentation on “River Waters and Congress Betrayals” at Telangana Bhavan on Sunday, Harish Rao said the Congress was responsible for causing irreparable loss to Telangana and its people in undivided Andhra Pradesh with regard to water rights. Despite 68 per cent of the Krishna river basin lying in Telangana, the State was unfairly allocated only 34 per cent (299 TMCft) of the waters, while Andhra Pradesh which had only 32 per cent received 66 per cent (512 TMCft), he said.

“This discriminatory 66:34 ratio is a Congress legacy. It was imposed even before State bifurcation. While the previous BRS government did not agree for it, the current Congress despensation restored it through deliberate policy decisions,” he said, adding that Telangana was pushed into decades of drought, migration and farmer distress.

Refuting the Chief Minister’s claims on the BRS government agreeing for 299 TMCft allocation in Krishna River water, Harish



Rao stated that Revanth Reddy read out select paras from the letter written by the BRS government to the Centre, while ignoring the operative portion that it was only a “temporary arrangement”. He accused the Chief Minister of misleading the Assembly and demanded for the latter’s resignation, if he had any morale. “I might be targeted personally and even assaulted physically, for exposing these lies,” he opined.

The BRS leader recalled that the merger of Telangana with Andhra Pradesh, despite the Fazal Ali Commission’s recommendation against it, was the Congress’s “original sin”.

“That decision wrote the death warrant for Telangana’s water rights. The Congress remains Telangana’s number one villain,” he said, stating that both Irrigation Minister N Uttam Kumar Reddy and Chief Minister Revanth Reddy were peddling fabricated narratives and tall claims to conceal decades of injustice.

While the BRS fought relentlessly for a 50:50 interim share and a tribunal under Section 3, the Congress had reverted to the old 66:34 formula in Krishna River water sharing. “The Congress committed the crime and blaming BRS. Telangana’s water disputes are the poisonous legacy of Congress rule,” Harish Rao said, warning that BRS would take the issue to the people and launch a renewed struggle to defend the State’s water rights.