Hyderabad: Irrigation minister N. Uttam Kumar Reddy on Thursday accused the BRS and the BJP of spreading “false propaganda” over Hyderabad industrial land conversion policy (HILTP) and thermal power projects. He said that the industrial policy was aimed at making Hyderabad a cleaner and pollution-free metropolis by gradually relocating certain industries outside the city limits.
Speaking at Gandhi Bhavan after participating in the ‘Face-to-face with ministers’ programme, he said the opposition was deliberately creating confusion despite the transparency of government policies.
Uttam Kumar Reddy said that the policy had existed during the previous BRS regime and was not a newly-introduced measure. He added that the move would generate additional revenue for the government and carried no scope for corruption.
He alleged that BJP and BRS leaders were attacking the policy without understanding its objectives, and attempting to “sling mud” at the government’s development efforts. He said the strong public support for the Congress government’s initiatives had rattled the opposition, prompting them to resort to misinformation.
Responding to BRS allegations of a ₹50,000-crore scam in the construction of power plants, Uttam Kumar Reddy dismissed the claims as baseless and stated that “not even a ₹50,000 scam” had occurred. He said, instead, that major irregularities lay in the Bhadradri Kothagudem Power Project executed during the BRS tenure. The BRS government, he alleged, procured outdated and unused machinery from India Bulls and set up the plant with sub-critical technology, making it inefficient and a financial burden on Telangana.
He reiterated that the Congress government was committed to transparent governance and that opposition parties were creating controversies purely for political mileage.
