The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh News : Congress denies favouritism

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Oct 30, 2004

Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh

Congress denies favouritism

By Our Staff Reporter

HYDERABAD, OCT. 29. Senior Congress leader, Gade Venkat Reddy, has decried the attempts being made by some parties to create an impression among people that the Chief Minister, Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy, was favouring Andhra and Rayalaseema in taking up irrigation projects.

Speaking to reporters here on Friday, Mr. Reddy along with Gali Muddukrishnama Naidu and N. Varadarajulu Reddy, party MLAs, maintained that these parties were trying to mislead people.

Mr. Venkat Reddy said the Government had earmarked Rs. 246 crores for lift irrigation schemes alone for this year against Rs. 290 crores spent during the nine-year TDP rule.

There were 1,308 lift irrigation schemes of which 573 were defunct.

After the Congress returned to power, 141 schemes were revived and efforts were on to restore the rest.

He said Government was committed to completing all pending projects in a phased manner.

Liaison office in Delhi

Our Special Correspondent adds: A liaison office will be opened soon in Delhi headed by an irrigation chief engineer and comprising 10 officials for getting early Central clearances for the pending irrigation projects of the State.

Responding to a report on the subject appeared in The Hindu on Friday, the Minister for Major Irrigation, P. Lakshmaiah, told reporters that they were searching for suitable accommodation in Delhi to locate the office. Official sources, however, said, the office was being temporarily located in Andhra Bhavan.

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