Chandrababu Naidu writes to CM?on Brijesh Kumar Tribunal

Hyderabad: Telugu Desam President N. Chandrababu Naidu on Sunday demanded that Chief Minister N. Kiran Kumar Reddy take immediate steps to prevent the Brijesh Kumar Tribunal Award on Krishna water distribution from becoming operational, and insist that the Centre appoint a fresh tribunal.

In a letter to the CM, which was released to the media, Naidu has squarely blamed the lawyers appointed by the late chief minister Y.S. Rajasekhar Reddy.

"AP State getting raw deal in the Brijesh Kumar Tribunal is only because of lack of effective arguments by the advocates appointed by the state government. The late Rajasekhar Reddy has removed the eminent advocates appointed by my regime like K. Parasaran and A.K. Ganguly and they were replaced by advocates who did not have the basic understanding in irrigation issues," Naidu has stated.

Meanwhile, irrigation ministers in the former TD government K.E. Krishna Murthy, Tummala Nageswara Rao and Mandava Venkteswara Rao blamed successive Congress governments on Sunday for having mortgaged the interests of the state, and held the Congress governments responsible for the state getting a raw deal in the just announced Krishna Tribunal Award.

They blamed the government of the late Y.S. Rajasekhar Reddy for giving a written commitment to the Brijesh Kumar tribunal foregoing the rights of AP to use the surplus Krishna waters. Mandava Venkateswara Rao said that TD chief Chandrababu Naidu will lead a delegation to the Prime Minister and Union water resources minister to present before them the grave injustice done to AP

by the Brijesh Kumar Tribunal Award.

Another former minister for irrigation, Tummala Nageswara Rao, challenged the Congress leaders to disprove that it was Telugu Desam governments headed by N. T. Rama Rao and Chandrababu Naidu that were responsible for constructing several irrigation projects across the State, and not the Congress government.

“Except Nagarjunasagar, Sriramsagar and Srisailam dam, all the other dams and projects were taken up during the Telugu Desam party's regime. We are ready to discuss with any sane person who knows something about the irrigation sector and not with persons having half knowledge or no knowledge," Tummala fumed.