*Rayalaseema betrayed by Chandrababu*

Anantapur, Jan 25: Former MLA and Anantapur district YSRCP president Anantha Venkatarami Reddy  criticised Chandrababu Naidu repeatedly betraying Rayalaseema whenever he becomes Chief Minister, stating that the region has suffered historic injustice under his rule. Addressing the media at the YSRCP office in Anantapur, he said Chandrababu, soon after assuming office in 2024, halted the Rayalaseema Lift Irrigation Scheme as part of a “secret understanding” with Telangana Chief Minister Revanth Reddy. He said this conspiracy stood exposed by Revanth Reddy’s own statement on the floor of the Telangana Assembly, after which Chandrababu launched diversion politics to escape public anger.

Anantha Venkatarami Reddy stated that Chandrababu and his ministers were spreading blatant misinformation by claiming that 40 TMC of water had been lifted through Handri–Neeva in just 190 days. He questioned how such figures were possible when the canal’s existing capacity and pump design make such claims technically impossible. He also demanded to know where the Rs. 3,000 crore allegedly spent in the name of canal widening had gone, calling it a daylight fraud on Rayalaseema.

He asserted that the Handri–Neeva project’s real credit belongs to the late Dr. Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy, who initiated the project and gave it concrete form in 2005, and not to Chandrababu, who despite serving four terms as Chief Minister failed to advance Rayalaseema’s irrigation interests. He said even after state bifurcation, projects initiated under YSR stagnated, and it was only after Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy became Chief Minister in 2019 that a serious attempt was made to permanently address Rayalaseema’s drought by strengthening Handri–Neeva, linking it to other projects, expanding lifting capacity, and launching the Rayalaseema Lift Scheme with a long-term vision to draw floodwaters during the limited Srisailam inflow window.

The former MLA said Chandrababu had now cancelled the Rayalaseema Lift Scheme out of political malice, while falsely claiming extraordinary achievements on Handri–Neeva. Citing official water-lifting data, he said higher quantities were lifted during Y.S. Jagan’s tenure but over longer operational periods due to technical limitations, and that present claims of lifting 40 TMC in 190 days do not stand scientific scrutiny. He warned that reducing project capacity, stopping new lift works, and diverting public funds amounted to a grave betrayal of the people who elected the government.

Venkatarami reddy urged Chandrababu to stop “credit theft and deception,” demanded answers on the alleged misuse of thousands of crores, and called for the immediate revival of the Rayalaseema Lift Irrigation Scheme and expansion of Handri–Neeva capacity. He warned that if Rayalaseema’s water rights continue to be buried, Chandrababu would remain in history as a leader who denied the region its future.