Revanth Reddy spreading falsehood on Musi rejuvenation: KTR

 Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) working president K. T. Rama Rao on Friday accused Chief Minister Revanth Reddy of spreading falsehoods in the Assembly on the Musi River rejuvenation.

Rama Rao alleged that the Chief Minister is using the project as a cover for what he termed the “biggest corruption conspiracy in Telangana’s history.”

KTR, as the BRS leader is popularly known, said the Chief Minister had no vision whatsoever to cleanse the Musi and remarked that poison runs through every nerve of Revanth Reddy, driven by anger against those questioning his alleged illegal wealth and opposing the Musi project in its present form.

KTR also remarked that the language used by the Chief Minister was more foul-smelling than the polluted Musi itself.

The BRS leader questioned the credibility of the Chief Minister’s claims, asking how Revanth Reddy could announce expenditure figures touching Rs 1.5 lakh crore when the Detailed Project Report (DPR), by the government’s own admission, would take at least another year to be prepared.

“If the DPR is not ready, how were such massive estimates announced?” he asked, demanding an explanation for why bulldozers were deployed to demolish the homes of the poor even before statutory planning and approvals were in place.

The statement alleged that under the guise of Musi ‘beautification’, the Congress government was preparing for a massive financial loot.

KTR accused the government of attempting to hand over key aspects of the project to Mainhardt, a company allegedly blacklisted and facing Red Corner Notices.

“How can a firm with such a background be entrusted with a project of this scale?” he asked, calling it a deliberate conspiracy to facilitate corruption.

KTR further charged that the Chief Minister had officially declared plans to demolish the houses of over one lakh people living along the Musi and render them homeless.

This, he said, exposed the true character of the Congress government.

“Congress rule means demolitions, not construction,” KTR stated, adding that while illegal guest houses allegedly built by ministers near Himayat Sagar and Osman Sagar were left untouched, poor families were being evicted without compassion.

Holding the Congress and TDP responsible for decades of neglect, KTR said it was these parties, who ruled the united state for nearly 60 years, that polluted the Musi and turned it into a sewage drain.

He pointed out that Revanth Reddy himself had served in both parties and could not disown their legacy.

He also blamed previous governments for subjecting Nalgonda district to prolonged suffering due to polluted water and fluoride contamination, asserting that it was only under BRS rule, through Mission Bhagiratha, that the fluoride menace was effectively addressed.

KTR challenged the Chief Minister’s claim of bringing 20 TMC of Godavari water to the Musi, asking him to clearly state whether that water was from Kaleshwaram.

“If it is, he should bow his head and admit it,” KTR said, accusing Revanth Reddy of running false propaganda against the Kaleshwaram project while silently depending on it for Musi rejuvenation.

The BRS working president alleged that the real objective behind the Musi project was large-scale real estate exploitation.

He accused the government of forcibly evicting poor and middle-class residents from valuable lands in central Hyderabad to benefit benamis and loyalists.

“For this Chief Minister, governance has been reduced to real estate dealings,” he said.

KTR said global tenders were earlier invited at minimal cost for Musi rejuvenation, with nine reputed companies submitting detailed designs.

A comprehensive master plan was prepared at an estimated cost of about Rs 16,000 crore.

“With ready designs in hand, restarting the process makes sense only if commissions are the motive,” he alleged, noting that estimates were being arbitrarily escalated from Rs 50,000 crore to Rs 75,000 crore and now to Rs 1.5 lakh crore even before execution began.