Hyderabad, October 06: Chief Minister N. Kiran Kumar Reddy has squarely blamed TRS president K. Chandrasekhar Rao and Political JAC Chairman M. Kodandaram for the crop loss suffered by farmers due to power shortage in Telangana and elsewhere in the State.
Of the 74 lakh acres irrigated under borewells in the State, 60 per cent lie in Telangana and these crops were on the verge of withering away due to the actions of KCR and Prof. Kodandaram. They were bent on creating a power crisis in the State, he said warning them that people facing severe hardships would denounce their actions.
‘Put off stir’
By instigating mine workers to bring coal production to a halt in Godavarikhani and Khammam and disrupting power generation, KCR and Prof. Kodandaram had upset the crop schedules and were doing grave injustice to farmers. In view of the crucial time for crops, they should postpone the agitation by two months, he said.
“It is deplorable to link the general strike with the Telangana issue and victimise farmers, common people and poor,” Mr.Kiran Kumar Reddy said addressing a large contingent of party workers, youth and beneficiaries of the Rs.1 a kg rice scheme from Adilabad at the Camp Office here on Monday.
Denying the statement of TRS leaders that power was not being generated despite availability of adequate water in Srisailam and Nagarjunasagar, the Chief Minister said this was just propaganda. These projects would have to provide irrigation to 22 lakh acres kharif crops till October-end and generate power. Thus coal generation without hurdles was of prime importance to supply power to the farm sector.
Ball in Centre’s court
Reiterating that no one was opposed to Telangana, he, however, said that the issue should be decided by the Centre with people from the two regions expressing diametrically opposite views. The Centre was seeking the opinion of other political parties too.
Mr.Kiran Kumar Reddy explained that the government was spending Rs.10 crore a day to purchase power and even other States were not able to supply beyond 17 million units because of rising temperatures. Against the normal generation of 1.5 lakh tonnes of coal, only 50,000 tonnes were being produced and even that was being stopped by Prof. Kodandaram. He appealed to Singareni workers, the RTC and government employees to call off the strike.
The Chief Minister promised that special focus would be paid to the development of the backward Adilabad district.
In the second phase of Rachabanda, 40,000 white ration cards would be issued in the district. A.Sakku, Maheshwar Reddy, MLAs, and MLC Premasagar Rao spoke.
–Agencies