Hyderabad: Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao on Thursday exposed over 450 illegal barrages constructed by Maharashtra and Karnataka on Krishna and Godavari rivers with the help of Google Earth images in the Legislative Assembly.
He marked all the illegal constructions in red for easier identification. Mr Rao created a record of sorts by giving a PowerPoint presentation in the Legislative Assembly on Thursday on irrigation projects.
Two giant LCD screens were set up on either side of the Speaker to enable members watch the presentation. This is said to be the first time where a PowerPoint presentation was allowed in a Legislature. The Cong-ress and TD boycotted the session.
The two-and-a-half hour presentation focused on how Telangana was given a raw deal in undivided AP on irrigation, and the need to redesign existing projects to ensure optimum utilisation of water from the Godavari and the Krishna rivers.
“Maharashtra and Karnataka have built over 450 illegal barrages on Godavari and Krishna rivers and their tributaries. They have set up huge lifts to lift water. Unless all their projects, reservoirs and barrages are full and they release excess water downstream, there is no scope of Telangana receiving water from upstream. Even AP faces the same risk. It is for this reason our Singur project has dried up this year for the first time in history. Even Sriram Sagar project did not receive a single drop of water from upstream,” he said.
