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Water row: TS to wait for AP\'s reply to CJI\'s mediation offer

The Chief Minister told officials that the government had withdrawn the petition in the Supreme Court on Krishna dispute in June

Hyderabad: The Telangana state government is not keen to initiate talks with the Andhra Pradesh government on its own to resolve the Krishna water dispute through mediation as suggested by Chief Justice of India Justice N.V. Ramana on Monday.

The TS government will wait for the response of the Andhra Pradesh government on the mediation proposal since it is the latter that filed the petition in the Supreme Court. If the AP government offers to hold talks, the TS government will take a call on whether to accept the offer or not.

Official sources said TS Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao discussed with senior officials in the CMO and irrigation officials on the Supreme Court's mediation proposal on Tuesday and decided to take a call on this only after seeing how Andhra Pradesh responded and the conditions that Telangana had to insist on to resolve the dispute through talks.

The Chief Minister told officials that the government had withdrawn the petition in the Supreme Court on Krishna dispute in June to enable resolution of the issue through talks, but Andhra Pradesh filed the petition in July and complicated the matter.

The Chief Minister is said to have felt that all these days both the Centre and the Andhra Pradesh government claimed that the Telangana government's pending case in Supreme Court over Krishna dispute since 2015 was a hurdle to resolve the issue amicably.

The TS government responded positively by withdrawing the petition in June. But now the Andhra Pradesh government has filed a fresh petition in July. The problem has been created by the Andhra Pradesh government and they should come forward to offer a solution. Let us wait for AP's response, the Chief Minister is learnt to have told the officials.

The TS government hopes to get clarity on Andhra Pradesh’s response on mediation in the Supreme Court on Wednesday, when the case will come up for hearing again, based on which it wants to take a call on how to proceed further.

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