BRS leader's counter-challenge to Revanth Reddy over Musi river project

Hyderabad, Oct 18 (IANS) Senior Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) leader T. Harish Rao on Friday challenged Telangana Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy for a visit without security to areas along the Musi river to meet people who are likely to be displaced by the Musi Riverfront Development project.

The former minister offered to come to the Chief Minister's house at 9 a.m. on Saturday for a joint visit to Musi.

"Let us both visit Musi without security. You sit in the car and I will drive," said Harish Rao, claiming that people who are likely to be displaced are strongly opposing the project.

The BRS leader's challenge came a day after the Chief Minister dared leaders of BRS and BJP to stay in houses on the Musi riverbed for three months to prove their claim that it is a liveable area.

Defending the Musi project, the Chief Minister had claimed that his government wanted to give a better life to people living in miserable conditions along Musi river by providing them with alternate houses.

As Revanth Reddy had claimed that the rehabilitation plan for people to be affected by the Musi project is much better than the rehabilitation of people affected by irrigation projects constructed by the previous BRS government, Harish Rao said he was ready to accompany the Chief Minister to Kondapochamma Sagar, Mallanna Sagar and Ranganayak Sagar projects.

Harish Rao said that the BRS government constructed 4,000 houses by spending Rs 2,000 crore for the people displaced by Mallana Sagar, but for people living along Musi, the Congress government is giving 2 BHK houses built by the previous government.

Harish Rao accused Chief Minister Revanth Reddy of doing real estate business in the name of Musi River beautification and Fourth City.

Stating that the poor are not encroaching upon the land, the former minister said it was the government that was encroaching upon the lands of poor people.

"We are not against the revival of Musi. We are against your bulldozer policies, your real estate business,” he remarked.

He also alleged that Revanth Reddy was doing politics by provoking people of the Nalgonda district over Musi.

"If you are sincere and if you care for the people of Nalgonda, first stop industrial effluents flowing into Musi," he said.

On the Chief Minister's claim that the Musi project was not for beautification but was aimed at revival of the river, Harish Rao said the video made by foreign companies given the contract to prepare the design makes it clear that it is a beautification project.

The BRS leader said the video was prepared with Artificial Intelligence, bringing together various components of different riverfront development projects in other countries. He said if the project was really for the revival of the river, the video should have shown a river with clean and flowing water, but instead it depicted high-rise buildings.