Rivers: Naidu Exhorts Telangana Leaders to Play Constructive Politics

Polavaram: Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu has exhorted the political leaders in Telangana to practise constructive politics for the good of the people and advocated a policy of ‘give and take’, as all Telugus are one race.

Speaking to the media during his visit to the Polavaram irrigation project in Polavaram district on Wednesday, Naidu stated that he was the one who started the Madhavareddy lift irrigation scheme followed by Devadalu and Kalvakurthi, all in Telangana now.

“By taking up the Krishna delta modernisation, 20 tmc-ft of water was saved. I also took up the Bima lift scheme,” he said.

Naidu stated that when the Rajolibanda diversion scheme failed to get water, they took water from the Jurala project and, through the link canal, sent water to 40,000 acres in Mahabubnagar district.

On Godavari river also, he had taken up the Ali Sagar and Guthpa projects in Telangana.

The CM said that when there was a water crisis in Hyderabad, water was diverted from the Nagarajuna Sagar project to the city and “we developed the city in a big way.”

Naidu said, “In the last two days, some people are talking about some projects. The Devadula project was constructed upstream of the Godavari river in Telangana and the water will flow down to Polavaram project. As I am not objecting to water being taken for the Devadula project, there is no meaning in Telangana objecting to my plan to draw water from the Polavaram project.”

He said, “If I object to water being taken from Devadula, the project should not have come up. They are taking Godavari water to Manzeera and this is fine as long as the Godavari has plenty of water. I want to save some water for Krishna delta and take Krishna water to Rayalaseema. If all goes well, we can also give Krishna water to Telangana from the Srisailam and Nagarjuna Sagar projects.”

“I want the people of Telangana o understand the facts. Telangana can use surplus water for Manjeera and can further expand the Devadula project. There is nothing wrong with all that,” he said.

The Chief Minister said he failed to understand why a controversy was stirred up on the Rayalaseema lift scheme. “If a lie is repeated 100 times, it would not become the truth.”

Naidu said Rs.3,528 crore was sanctioned for the Rayalaeema lift scheme. “The works had started without obtaining the mandatory clearances, during the YSRC term, and hence the NGT ordered a halt to the work saying it did not have the mandatory environmental clearance. NGT imposed a penalty.”

The project, he said, has been resumed after Rs.900 crore was paid to the contractor and another Rs.2,500 crore for the works already done. The project was aimed at diversion of 34 tmc-ft of water, he said.

Naidu said, “Some leaders are trying to play cheap politics on the issue and also to tarnish my image. I am sure that nothing will happen to me. Moreover, they themselves would be stuck in the mud if they threw it on me.”

The CM said it was his lifetime ambition to take up inter-linking of rivers across the country so that surplus water could be used in deficit areas to curb drought. “When I raised the issue before then prime minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, he constituted a task force led by Suresh Prabhu, but the project was not taken up for some reason. When I took up the issue with PM Narendra Modi, he proposed taking up intra-state linking of rivers in AP as a pilot project.”

He said AP would take up inter-linking of rivers like Godavari, Krishna, Pennar and Vamsadhara so that “we would be having plenty of water and development could become an autopilot in the state.”