Telangana CM Warned By Centre On Project Appraisal

“Jal shakti minister C.R. Patil wrote to Revanth 20 days ago saying that the Centre was appraising the project. Maharashtra and Karnataka wrote to the Centre saying that if AP went ahead with the Banakacharla project, they will grab additional water from the Godavari and the Krishna. Yesterday, AP issued a tender for preparing a detailed project report,” Harish Rao said.

“Why is Revanth Reddy silent when such major decisions are being taken? Is it because he approves AP’s loot of Telangana’s water in return for a share in the contracts? What is Revanth Reddy so scared of? And why did he hide Patil’s letter from his cabinet colleagues?” Harish Rao asked.

Addressing a press conference, Harish Rao said the Banakacharla project did not even qualify for examination as no law allowed any project based on claims about flood waters as AP was doing with the project.

“Revanth should have immediately questioned Patil on how an appraisal could be done, and should have approached the Supreme Court to stop AP and the Centre’s plans,” Harish Rao said.

Meanwhile, Karnataka, he said, wrote to the Centre two weeks ago saying that if AP went ahead with the project that takes Godavari water to the Krishna River, then it will claim an additional 112 tmc ft Krishna water as per the Godavari Water Disputes Tribunal agreement’s provisions.

Karnataka told the Centre to inform it of the date of approval for Banakacharla so it can start storing the additional water at the Almatti dam. Revanth Reddy has not even questioned Karnataka’s plans on raising that dam’s height, he added.

Maharashtra also wrote to the jal shakti ministry saying that it would take its share of so-called flood water from the Godavari if AP was allowed to use flood waters. It warned that it will also take 74 tmc ft of water from Krishna citing the same reasons as Karnataka, Harish Rao said.

“This is a double whammy for Telangana. AP is planning to loot water from Godavari and Krishna through Banakacharla. Maharashtra and Karnataka are saying they will hold back 200 tmc ft of water from Krishna, even as Maharashtra said it will use more water from Penganga and Pranahita that empty into Godavari. This will lead to a parched Telangana,” Harish Rao warned.

“The BJP government in Delhi is dependent on Chandrababu Naidu’s TD so he is calling the shots. None of this would have come to pass had BRS been in power in Telangana,” Harish Rao said. He also demanded and explanation from Bandi Sanjay Kumar and G Kishan Reddy, the two BJP union ministers from Telangana, on their silence on the issue.

“Former chief minister and BRS president K. Chandrashekar Rao is already consulting lawyers on this issue. If the Telangana government does not go to the SC, then BRS will stop AP from going ahead with Banakacharla and the Centre from giving approvals for an illegal project,” Harish Rao added.