We have engaged India’s best experts and don’t need your expertise, Uttam tells Harish Rao

Irrigation Minister criticizes BRS MLA for unprofessional advice, questions their track record in completing irrigation projects in Telangana.

Irrigation Minister N. Uttam Kumar Reddy slammed Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) MLA T. Harish Rao saying the government doesn’t need his ‘unprofessional’ advice as professionals with expertise 1,000 times higher than him were handling the situation at the SLBC tunnel accident site.

“Does Mr. Harish Rao consider himself more knowledgeable than the top tunnel engineers engaged by the government? Is he trying to insult the Indian Army, Navy commandos, BRO teams and other experts who are risking their lives in this rescue?” he questioned. Terming the BRS leaders’ visit to the accident site as an effort to get publicity in the media, the Minister pointed out that during the Srisailam Left Bank Power Station blast, where nine workers lost their lives, no BRS leader even visited the site. He recalled that when Revanth Reddy (then Congress leader) tried to visit the victims, he was arrested and taken to a police station.

Similarly, in the Devadula project, where seven workers died, their remains were recovered only after five years. He questioned why Harish Rao never spoke about these incidents when they happened under the BRS regime.

Mr. Reddy accused the BRS of abandoning the work at SLBC for 10 years and failing to complete the project, which, if finished on time, would have provided 30 TMC of water to Telangana, benefiting three to four lakh acres of agricultural land in Nalgonda. The Minister further accused BRS chief K. Chandrasekhar Rao and Mr. Harish Rao of crippling the irrigation sector by spending ₹1.81 lakh crore on projects that never provided water. He alleged that the Palamuru-Rangareddy project cost ₹27,500 crore, yet not a single acre received water. He also pointed out that the Kaleshwaram project, which they proudly built, collapsed, and now they have the audacity to question the Congress government.

“They should have some shame before speaking. They did not complete SLBC, Devadula, Sitarama, or Palamuru Rangareddy projects, and now they are pretending as if they care,” he said.