Blaming the BRS for deceiving the locals in his constituency, Telangana Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy today tried to convince the farmers to part with their land for the sake of development and urged them to accept a higher amount of compensation for the industrial park coming up at Kodangal.

The CM today addressed a farmers’ meeting in his home district of Mahabubnagar on the occasion of the completion of a year of his government and launched a blistering attack on former chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao. Speaking on the Lagacherla incident ,Reddy said innocent tribal people had gone to jail by believing the lies of the BRS. He said he was determined to bring the industrial park and Kodangal lift irrigation project to his constituency. “Don’t fall into the traps of BRS and go to jail. Instead, take more compensation. A generation will change if there are more jobs,” said Reddy who promised the industrial park will lead to employment for 25,000 people. “KCR alone has a farmhouse of 1000 acres in Gajwel. Shouldn’t we have 1300 acres for an industrial estate?” he asked. Yesterday, the Congress government withdrew the notification for land acquisition for the Pharma village in the area. Today, it has again issued a notification for land acquisition for the multi purpose industrial park in Kodangal.

He pointed out, “If officials had been attacked then would projects like Nagarjuna Sagar have been completed. For development to happen some people have to suffer. The government will provide them with the necessary compensation,” and even wondered “will industries come to our area?” when officials were being attacked. He argued there would not have been projects like Nagarjunasagar, Srisailam Project or Jurala if officials had been attacked.

He claimed that Congress governments of the past had introduced loan waivers, free electricity to farmers and brought insurance for farmers. It was Congress which gave bonus of Rs 500 for paddy harvest. Farmer’s welfare was patented by the Congress, he thundered. He challenged both KCR and Prime Minister Narendra Modi for a debate on achievements of respective governments.

“Why KCR did not complete the Palamuru projects despite being in power for ten years?” asked Reddy adding that the former chief minister, his son KT Rama Rao and nephew T Harish Rao were obstructing projects to bring water to the Palmuru region. Today the government announced that an additional Rs2747 crore has been released for 3.14 lakh farmers whose loans were not waived earlier. The chief minister claimed that his government has spent Rs54,000 crore for farmers in one year.