YSRTP's YS Sharmila detained by Delhi Police at protest against Telangana govt
YS Sharmila - the younger sister of Andhra Pradesh CM Jaganmohan Reddy - is targeting Telangana CM K Chandrashekhar Rao over the Kaleshwaram irrigation project.
YSR Telangana Party chief YS Sharmila was detained by Delhi Police Tuesday morning in the middle of a vociferous protest against chief minister K Chandrashekhar Rao's government. Visuals shared by news agency ANI showed Sharmila - in a light blue saree and mobbed by photographers - shepherded into an unmarked white vehicle by female police personnel while she and her followers shout "KCR (as the Telangana chief minister is called) down, down".
YS Sharmila - the younger sister of Andhra Pradesh chief minister YS Jaganmohan Reddy - said yesterday she planned to hold a 'peaceful march' from Jantar Mantar to the Parliament to highlight alleged irregularities in the southern state's Kaleshwaram Lift Irrigation Project, which is a multi-purpose irrigation project on the Godavari river in Bhupalpally district.
Also on Monday, she hit out at the authorities for having failed to act against irregularities 'already in the public' and said her protest was meant to draw the attention of the country and Parliament to the 'biggest fiasco of Telangana'.
"… I will walk from Jantar Mantar to Parliament to let the entire country realise the magnitude of the scam and our tireless fight in the last two years. Project cost was escalated from ₹38,500 crore to ₹1.20 lakh crore but, yesterday, BRS minister claimed only 1.5 lakh acres of land were irrigated. This shows Kaleshwaram is the biggest flop show," she told reporters in Hyderabad.
She also claimed 'pockets of one contractor and one family (were) filled…', called the project a 'disaster' and accused KCR of being 'full of lies'.
READ | YS Sharmila's 'Telangana is India's Afghanistan' attack on KCR
"KCR's redesign conspiracy itself was motivated by his intention to loot exchequer… project quality was so poor it crumbled within three years," she declared, "… India has right to seek explanation as every Indian's money was looted to give contract to one company - the favourite one with KCR. Central finance institutions extended debt of ₹1 lakh crore…so country is at a loss. "
Sharmila also held a 'silent protest' in Hyderabad last week near a statue on the city's Tank Bund Road - that was over crime against women in the state. Police said the protest violated rules and she and other members of the YSRTP were removed; Sharmila was later shifted to her residence.
Political tensions in Telangana have been ramped up over the past few weeks as opposition parties like the YSRTP (and the Bharatiya Janata Party) prep to take on KCR and his Bharat Rashtra Samithi in an Assembly election due this year.
KCR has put dismissed rumours of an early election and told his national executive to 'start making preparations to face battle in earnest without laxity'.
