Telangana Opposed To AP Govt’s Banakacharla Project: Uttam
Telangana is firmly opposed to the Banakacharla project of the Andhra Pradesh government and was making every effort to ensure that the project is stopped - Uttam Kumar Reddy
HYDERABAD: Telangana is firmly opposed to the Banakacharla project of the Andhra Pradesh government and was making every effort to ensure that the project is stopped, irrigation minister N/ Uttam Kumar Reddy said on Tuesday.
The minister said he had taken Telangana’s objections to the project to the notice of Union jal shakti minister C.R. Patil, to the Central Water Commission, as well as to the Godavari River Management Board (GRMB).
Uttam Kumar Reddy, in an informal chat with reporters at the Secretariat, said Telangana would under no circumstance agree to the Godavari-Banakacharla link project that AP has been pushing ahead with some vigour. The project costing around `81,000 crore envisages diverting about 200 tmc ft of water from Godavari river at Polavaram and take it to Rayalaseema using the Bollapalli reservoir and Banakacherla head regulator.
Andhra Pradesh, through the project, plans to link Godavari with Krishna and Penna rivers. Telangana has been opposing the project saying that any expansion of the Polavaram project capacity was against the Godavari Water Disputes Tribunal’s award of river water shares to AP and Telangana.
Uttam Kumar Reddy said this issue would be discussed by the state government in detail, following which a clear plan of action to stop AP from going ahead with the project would be drawn up. He also refuted the claim of AP Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu that Andhra Pradesh was only planning to use Godavari water that went waste into the sea. There was no clarity on whether the water was from Telangana’s share or not, Uttam Kumar Reddy said.
The issue has also turned contentious within Telangana with the BRS accusing the Congress government of inaction in stopping AP from going ahead with the project.