TG Congress reviews SIR and polls

metro india news I hyderabad

The Telangana Congress Coordination Committee on Wednesday held a crucial review meeting at the AICC headquarters in New Delhi to strengthen coordination between the party and the state government while chalking out its political and governance strategy ahead of the upcoming local body elections. The meeting was chaired by AICC Telangana in-charge Meenakshi Natarajan and attended by Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy, Deputy Chief Minister Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka, TPCC President Mahesh Kumar Goud, Ministers N Uttam Kumar Reddy, Seethakka, Damodar Rajanarasimha, CWC member Vamsichand and other senior leaders.

The committee reviewed the functioning of the coordination mechanism established by the party high command and assessed the implementation of decisions taken so far. Discussions centred on strengthening coordination between the government and the organisation, improving the delivery of welfare initiatives to the people, enhancing organisational preparedness, and evolving a strategy for the forthcoming local body elections.

Deputy Chief Minister Bhatti Vikramarka said every eligible citizen must be able to exercise the right to vote and praised Congress Booth Level Agents for their work in the ongoing Special Intensive Revision process. He urged party workers to further accelerate the exercise and said the government was preparing an action plan to take welfare programmes more effectively to the people. He also announced that district in charges and District Congress Committee presidents would submit reports on the MLC Graduates constituency election after constituting three member panels.

TPCC President Mahesh Kumar Goud said the meeting reviewed the SIR process and organisational strengthening. He stated that around 36,000 Booth Level Agents had been appointed, with nearly 50 to 60 per cent of the work completed, and expressed confidence that the process would be completed within the next few days. He said protecting the voting rights of all eligible voters remained the party's primary objective.

Uttam Reddy targets BRS over Kaleshwaram

Speaking in an informal interaction with the media, Irrigation Minister N Uttam Kumar Reddy launched a sharp attack on the previous BRS government over the Kaleshwaram Lift Irrigation Project. He alleged that leakages had appeared within a week of the project's construction and claimed the then government ignored warnings from engineers. He said the state was paying nearly ₹16,000 crore in interest for a project that had remained largely unusable for almost three years.

The minister alleged that the project's foundations were laid without adequate consideration of soil conditions and cited reports from IIT Bombay, CWPRS and the National Dam Safety Authority to support the government's assessment of structural concerns. He maintained that public safety was the government's priority and insisted there was no political motive behind the review of the project.

Uttam also said the state had written to the CBI seeking an investigation based on technical reports and asserted that those responsible for alleged irregularities would be held accountable. On HYDRAA, he said the matter falls within the Chief Minister's jurisdiction and any decision would be taken by the Chief Minister.

Later, Uttam Kumar Reddy, along with TPCC President Mahesh Kumar Goud and AICC Secretary Sampath Kumar, met Karnataka Chief Minister D K Shivakumar in New Delhi to discuss inter state river water issues, including matters relating to the Krishna and Tungabhadra river waters, highlighting the continued engagement between the two states on water sharing and irrigation concerns.