Telangana Will Be Back In SC Next Week to Stop AP: Uttam
Uttam Kumar Reddy said “it was due to our pressure that AP government halted work on Rayalaseema lift irrigation scheme.”
Hyderabad: Irrigation minister N. Uttam Kumar Reddy on Monday said he would be attending the next hearing in the Supreme Court on Telangana’s plea seeking directions to the Centre not to give any permission to Andhra Pradesh’s Polavaram-Nallamalasagar link project (PNLP), and that another meeting with the lawyers representing Telangana will be held in the next couple of days.
During an informal chat with reporters at the Assembly, Uttam Kumar Reddy said when the matter came up on Monday in the apex court, The court adjourned the hearing to next Monday, advising Telangana to file under a suit petition rather than a writ petition. “We will again seek a stay order from the Supreme Court next Monday,” he said.
The minister said Telangana was opposing the PNLP on all fora including the Godavari River Management Board (GRMB), Polavaram Project Authority, CWC, the Union environment ministry as well as the Union jal shakti ministry and at the Centre, arguing that the project violated the GWDT 1980 award and inter-state water rules. “All of them have agreed with our view point,” Uttam Kumar Reddy said. “We are going to the court to ask for directions that no permissions be given to AP for this project.”
He said a letter referenced to by BRS leader T. Harish Rao on the project, was an internal communication of the Central Water Commission, and not CWC’s approval for the project. “The CWC wrote to us on December 4 upholding our view. It is not just Telangana, but even Maharashtra and Karnataka are voicing strong objections to the project,” he said.
Uttam Kumar Reddy also said “it was due to our pressure that AP government halted work on Rayalaseema lift irrigation scheme.”