Telangana gets lion's share of irrigation projects: Minister

Hyderabad, Sep 18 (UNI) Dismissing as 'false propaganda', the Opposition charge that the Andhra Pradesh Government had provided a 'raw deal' to the backward Telangana region, senior Congress leader and Irrigation Minister P Lakshmaiah today said the region got 'a lion's share'' under the Government's irrigation initiative.

At a time when the Y S Rajasekhara Reddy Government had taken up major and medium projects to irrigate 48.53 lakh acres in Telangana region and 30.80 lakh acres in other parts of the State, the TDP and the TRS were making baseless charges that irrigation projects in the Telangana region had been neglected, Mr Lakshmaiah told a press conference here.

These parties were making such a false propoganda only for political survival, he claimed, adding that the present Government had started major projects to irrigate 31 lakh acres and medium projects to irrigate 17 lakh acres in the region, when compared to only 20 lakh acres till 2003-04 from independence.

He said only four lakh acres in the region had irrigation facility prior to independence.

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