Lagadapati Rajagopal

KURNOOL: The private visit of Vijayawada MP Lagadapati Rajagopal to the city suddenly charged the political atmosphere here on Wednesday as the MP along with local MP Kotla Jayasuryaprakasa Reddy addressed a meeting extending unconditional support to the Pothireddypadu project.

Mr. Rajagopal, who inaugurated a medical diagnostic centre, later drove to the District Congress office along with Kotla Jayasuryaprakasa Reddy, Mayor S. Raghurami Reddy and Rayalaseema Hakkula Ikya Vedika president T.G. Venkatesh and announced his support to the Pothireddypadu project.

Flowing into sea

Mr. Rajagopal told reporters that the project would not harm the interests of any region including Krishna delta and would benefit the most backward region in the State. "I know the suffering of Rayalaseema people firsthand as an engineer who worked on Srisailam Right Branch Canal," he said.

The leaders who opposed the project should know that Rayalaseema was the zone with the lowest rainfall in the country after Western Rajasthan.

According to him, in the last three years around 2,200 tmcft flowed into the sea. Pothireddypadu project would help fill seven reservoirs in three districts and ensured supply to Chennai.

Open debate

Mr. Rajagopal said, "I am not saying this just because I am in Kurnool. I had invited the opposition leaders for an open debate at Viajayawada a year ago."

He said the critics of Pothireddypadu project had no public support, as everybody was busy with the projects in their own districts.

There was no place in the State where no irrigation project had been taken up.

He said Rayalaseema would join either Telengana or Coastal Andhra whichever region undid the injustice meted out to the region.

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