Andhra Pradesh fighting for rightful share of water: Devineni Umamaheshwar Rao
Tirupati: Flaying the former UPA government for doing "injustice" to Andhra Pradesh in the sharing of Krishna waters, water resources minister Devineni Umamaheshwar Rao has maintained that the TD government in the state is fighting to get its rightful share of water at the Brijesh Kumar Tribunal.
The minister, along with home minister Chinarajappa, addressed the media here on Sunday after participating in the 7 Hills Marathon run.
While commending on the stand taken by the AP government on the sharing of Krishna river water, he alleged that due to the neglect of the previous UPA government at the Centre and the Congress government in the state, the combined AP had lost its share of water in Krishna river.
"When the Karnataka government had increased the height of Almatti dam from 517 metres to 524 metres, those governments took no action. When the two judgements by Brijesh Kumar Tribunal went against AP, I myself as an MLA filed a Special Leave Petition against the judgements in Supreme Court. Later, the state government has filed another SLP. If the earlier government had incorporated a provision in the law, making it mandatory for the four riparian states to share the Krishna waters equally, that is when the water is in deficit, this position would not have arisen," he maintained.
He said that in the TD politburo meeting on Saturday, members discussed elaborately on how to overcome the problem. "The chief minister will discuss with legal experts on how to defend the state before the Brijesh Kumar Tribunal in order to also have the Krishna waters shared in a proper manner between the four basin states. The tribunal is scheduled to hear the arguments on December 14," the minister said.
Home minister China Rajappa has dismissed the allegations of YSR Congress leaders that he was chided by TD general secretary Nara Lokesh.
While maintaining that he was part of the Nara family and he didn’t have any rift with anyone, he said, "YSR Congress leaders Botsa Satyanarayana and Ambati Rambabu are making false allegations against me. These leaders also made false allegations against Agriculture minister Pulla Rao on fake seeds," he said.
Answering to a query, he said following the directions of the chief minister, the ministers would furnish details of their assets to the Assembly Speaker. "It is the discretion of the CM to include or exclude anyone from his cabinet," he said.
