Season of Challenges: Ponguleti’s to KTR on illegal house; KTR to Revanth on farm loan waiver

Hyderabad:The political slugfest between Congress and BRS govt intensified further with both parties throwing challenges at one another.

While Revenue Minister Ponguleti Srinivas Reddy challenged former minister KTR on repeated allegations over his house falling in the buffer zone limits of Himayat Sagar lake, KTR, meanwhile, threw a challenge to CM A Revanth Reddy for a field visit along with him to any village in the State to do a reality check over implementation of farm loan waiver scheme.

Addressing the media in Gandhi Bhavan, Ponguleti reacted sharply to recent allegations by KTR and his partymen and one-sided coverage in media and youtube channels for the last 15 days that he illegally constructed a house in the FTL/Buffer Zone limits of Himayat Sagar. He dared KTR to prove his allegations by undertaking a survey themselves.

“Let the former MAUD minister KTR and former Irrigation Minister Harish Rao give a date when they want to visit carrying their own measuring tape, as they don’t have faith in official machinery, to do a survey whether the house was illegally constructed. I am ordering HYDRAA (Hyderabad Disaster Response and Assets Monitoring Agency) Commissioner AV Ranganath from this platform to send his team along with JCBs and Proclainers simultaneously and if any violations are found they are free to take up demolition,” Ponguleti said, without mincing his words.

He just wanted BRS to accept his challenge and communicate the date so that the HYDRAA team would be ready also. He wanted to know where BRS leaders hide their faces if their allegations were found to be false and incorrect.

Why is KTR not bold enough to own Janwada farm house?

Ponguleti was highly critical of KTR for his statement that the farm house in Janwada was not his' but belonged to his friend. He wanted to know why KTR, when he was in power, mentioned in the FIR against Revanth Reddy that the PCC Chief trespassed on his farm house by capturing images with a drone and got him arrested. The revenue minister asked KTR to have guts to speak the truth instead of telling one lie after another to save his skin.

In fact, the said house is not mine: Ponguleti

I am not like KTR who is telling lies regarding farm house ownership. In fact, the house which BRS leaders are alleging to be illegally built is neither mine nor under my name at all. It belongs to my son’s, actually. However, I am not running away to say facts or trying to hide, unlike KTR, Ponguleti added.

Demolitions not confined just to small fish

The Revenue Minister disagreed with talk in some segments that only common people or non-influential ones are being targeted for demolition by HYDRAA. Infact the house of former union minister Pallam Raju’s brother was also acted upon when it was found to be in violation of rules. Where is the question of only small people facing the heat, when we even did not compromise when it came to a property belonging to a family member of a Congressmen himself, Ponguleti said.

KTR throws a challenge to Revanth

When the media tried to get a reaction from KTR about the challenge thrown by Ponguleti Srinivas Reddy, the BRS working president, said that there was no need to undertake a survey at all. He stated that one look at the old satellite images of the entire area will give a clear picture of the violations. KTR, addressing the media outside the DGP office, threw a challenge to CM A Revanth Reddy over implementation of the farm loan waiver scheme.

“I would like to throw a challenge to Revanth speaking in his own language. If you are a man of your word, I challenge you to come to any village in Telangana, sans police, bank authorities or agricultural officials. We will accompany the CM and enquire from farmers if they got the farm loan waiver or not. Believe me, farmers are now seething with anger and will beat up Congressmen like anything for the loan waiver fiasco. Not even one-fourth of the beneficiaries got the amount,” KTR said.