New Delhi: Telangana Chief Minister-designate K Chandrasekhar Rao on Tuesday opposed any move by the Centre to merge seven mandals of Khammam district with residual Andhra Pradesh to execute the Polavaram Irrigation Project.
"Please respect and honour democracy. Stop this ordinance at once and call two governments if you want any changes after due discussion with both responsible governments coming into force in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana," he told reporters here.
According to the AP Reorganisation Act, the Polavaram Irrigation Project has been declared to be a national project. It has also been declared that the Union should take under its control the regulation and development of the project for the purposes of irrigation.
However, the merger of seven mandals in Bhadrachalam sub-division in Khammam district that also includes submerging of villages, has become the bone of contention.
According to Rao, he had information that an ordinance is being pushed today in the Union Cabinet, aiming at merging seven mandals from Khammam district of Telangana with Andhra Pradesh.
Terming that it was against the "spirit of democracy", he said the move would also go against Article 3 of the Constitution.
"I appeal to Narendra Modiji, who has been popularly and democratically elected as Prime Minister of India, that his first meeting should not insult democracy," Rao added.
He further claimed that he had communicated the issue to the Prime Minister through a close aide of Modi.
Later, Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, who briefed the media after the cabinet meeting said that the issue was not taken up in the meeting. "We will take a view on it," Prasad added.
