Ready to live near Musi River with poor people, says Kishan Reddy

Telangana BJP president and Union Minister for Coal & Mines G. Kishan Reddy has said the party has accepted the challenge of Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy daring the Opposition leaders protesting against the Musi Rejuvenation project to live among the people living alongside the Musi River to understand their plight, on Friday.

Not a single house has been built or foundation stone laid by the Congress government in the last 10 months but it is bent on demolitions the houses of the poor built with their own earnings. Listening to the woes of the families affected by the proposed rejuvenation works is sure to melt anyone’s heart, he said.

Addressing the protest camp organised by the party against the alleged move to demolish houses for the river project, Mr. Kishan Reddy claimed that the people living in areas abutting the river have been living in fear for the last two months about their homes being demolished.

Instead of focusing on fulfilling the six guarantees made to different sections of the people before the elections, the Congress government has taken up the grand scheme of river beautification estimated to cost ₹1.5 lakh crore even when the basic civic infrastructure in the capital region is inadequate.

Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) and Hyderabad Metropolitan Water Supply & Sewerage Board (HMWSSB) have been hamstrung for want of funds but the government appears unconcerned, he charged. The BJP has decided to fight for the rights of the affected families and demanded the government build retaining walls first and clean up the sewerage flowing into it by taking up treatment plants.

Former party chief, Karimnagar MP and Union Minister of State for Home Bandi Sanjay Kumar questioned how the government planned to take up the project with weak finances and saw a conspiracy behind the project for real estate gains. “Just like the BRS government put a big debt burden with the Kaleshwaram lift irrigation project, the current government is taking up Musi river works,” he said.

Malkajgiri MP and former Minister Eatala Rajender claimed that the government had given land titles to people living by the river. Musi rejuvenation should be done but without hurting the poor, he said. Legislative party leader A. Maheshwar Reddy, ex-MLA N.V.S.S. Prabhakar and other leaders also addressed the camp.

Earlier, some of the affected women said they do not need double bedroom housing being offered by the government and said they had no complaints about either odour or mosquitoes living by the river. “We don’t need this tension of fearing our houses being demolished with markings made,” they said.

Published - October 25, 2024 06:56 pm IST