Speaker: Gattu Ramachandra Rao -jan26,2012

Reiterating its commitment for striving to get national project status to
Pranahita-Chevella project, YSR Congress has taken strong objection to Telangana TDP leaders
covering up the pylon laid by YSR while holding a dharna recently.
“The Telangana TDP leaders were trying to project Chandrababu Naidu a savior of farmers, while in
reality, he is anti-farmer. YSR Congress will take up the issue of getting national status to the project
which benefits eight of the ten districts in the State,” party official spokesperson Gattu Ramachandra
Rao told reporters here on Thursday.
It was YSR who has upgraded the project from 5 TMC to 160 TMC and secured the necessary
permission from the Central Water Commission (CWC) on June 6, three months before his death, while
the TDP leader has described agriculture as a “waste” in his book “Manasulo Mata “and took many antifarmer
steps as Chief Minister, he said.
The TDP leaders covered the pylon with a black cloth, as a plaque reading the YSR’s name was
embossed on it and went on with their speeches assuring people that they will convince Chandrababu
Naidu in helping to get national status to the project, he said.
“TDP has hiked power charges seven times during its two terms and was responsible for many of the
suicides and the party did not yield even when MLAs went on strike demanding roll back of power
charges,” he said.
“The assurances with so many riders are ridiculous as Naidu had issued GOs to jail farmers if they
default electricity bill payments by setting up special courts. While YSR has defined the upstream course
from Pranahitha to Chevella to benefit 14.4 lakh acres in 3,000 villages of seven Telangana districts
besides providing drinking water to the city,” he said.
TDP has turned into a copycat, as it was trying to do what YSR Congress has done or is planning to do.
Naidu started imitating YSR by taking up Rythu Poru bata, but his past haunts him all the time. While
YSR has been instrumental in increasing the scope of the project, Telangana leaders of TDP are
promising that they will convince their leader, if TDP comes to power, to expedite the project, he said.
“The correct procedure is to bring pressure on the State and Central Governments to declare
Pranahitha-Chevella as national project and our Party will go ahead on those lines,” he said.