HYDERABAD: It was a day of raw nerves and frayed tempers as problems continued defying solutions on the first day of the two-day collectors’ conference here on Wednesday. It witnessed ministers quarrelling among themselves, ministers flying into a rage at officials and one minister expressing deep anguish over chief minister’s comments on the portfolio he held in the past.After the collectors’ conference, IT and endowments minister Ponnala Lakshmaiah is reported to have told his confidants that it pained him to no end to listen to the chief minister saying that the ground realities were different from what is being shown on papers in regard to provision of irrigation facility to parched lands under Jalayagnam. The chief minister, in his inaugural address, said he was not sure of 20 lakh acres getting irrigation facility in the state as projected by the officials under Jalayagnam. Kiran Kumar said he had information that the figure could be much less. “We had taken up 12 projects, investing `46,000 crore for irrigating 20 lakh acres,” the chief minister said.After the meeting, Lakshmaiah, who held the irrigation portfolio in K Rosaiah and YSR’s cabinets, is reported to have told his confidants that on the contrary, the department had done a good job and the figures that they presented before the chief minister were true.During the course of the meeting, labour minister Danam Nagender is understood to have entered into a wordy duel with civil supplies minister D Sridhar Babu over the issue of ration cards in Hyderabad. Nagender contended that several beneficiaries were being left out, but the minister said everything was going on well. The sources said, Nagender, however, did not listen and said: “You are going by 2011 census. A number of families had migrated to Hyderabad subsequently.” He asked derisively civil supplies commissioner Harpreet Singh what the population of Hyerabad was. When he replied that it was 47 lakh, the minister wanted him to get his facts right (The population is 68.09 lakh).
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