Hyderabad: Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao asserted that the government would take all steps to complete the Nakkalagandi irrigation scheme to supply drinking water to fluoride-hit Nalgonda district beside SLBC.

Expressing happiness that farmers coming under the Nagarjunasagar left canal area can now sow a second crop for the first time after the formation of the state, he said the government would ensure that the state uses its entire share of water from Nagarjunasagar soon.

“Munugode, Deverakonda and other places in Nalgonda are badly hit by fluoride. The government will take steps to complete the Nakkalagandi irrigation scheme in three to three-and-a-half-years besides SLBC. I am extremely happy our farmers can now sow a second crop with water from Nagarjunasagar. We have to utilise our entire share of water from Nagarjunasagar,” he said.

“Nalgonda will develop once the 7,500 MW power plant in Damercherla and the dry port between Suryapet and Kodad is completed,” he added.

The CM was speaking at a function to welcome Dr Thera Chinnaapa Reddy who contested as Nalgonda MP and TD ex-district president B. Lingaiah Yadav besides Pedda Amberpet Nagar panchayat chairperson Dhanalakshmi and their followers into TRS at the Telangana Bhavan.

Making a special mention about industrialist Chinnappa Reddy as an honest person who was harassed, the CM said he had told energy minister G. Jagdish Reddy to invite him into the party.

"If he had joined TRS earlier he would have become an MLA or MP by now. He will get recognition in the party. Politics and elections are routine. We should try to rebuild Telangana," the CM said.