Cong Govt Colluding With AP On Polavaram Project: Harish
Andhra Pradesh was now arguing the line taken at the January 30 meeting by the Godavari River Management Board (GRMB) that the Bachawat Tribunal did not allocate Godavari water shares to different states: Harish Rao
HYDERABAD: Former irrigation minister and senior BRS leader T. Harish Rao on Monday accused the state government of colluding with the Andhra Pradesh government by staying silent on the neighbouring state's attempts to claim a large share of the Godavari River water.
Harish Rao claimed that AP, at a meeting with Telangana irrigation officials in Delhi on January 30, had pushed its plan on the Polavaram-Banakacharla link project, and this was mentioned in the minutes of the meeting that were sent on February 12 to Telangana.
"Why are Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy and irrigation minister N. Uttam Kumar Reddy silent on this? It has been more than a month since Telangana received a copy of the minutes. If the Congress government is sincere in its claims of stopping AP's project, then why has Telangana not written to the Central Water Commission that the minutes of the January 30 meeting were
wrong," Harish Rao asked.
Andhra Pradesh was now arguing the line taken at the January 30 meeting by the Godavari River Management Board (GRMB) that the Bachawat Tribunal did not allocate Godavari water shares to different states, he said.
"How could the CWC approve 76 projects across different states in the Godavari basin if the Bachawat Tribunal did not make any allocations? The GRMB has no right to question a Tribunal's award," Harish Rao and asked whether the state's interests had been surrendered to AP Chief Minister N.Chandrababu Naidu.
"If the Telangana government remains silent on such claims, it effectively amounts to accepting Andhra Pradesh's argument and Revanth Reddy mortgaging Telangana's interests in favour of Andhra Pradesh. The BRS demands that the Telangana government put an end to AP's plans on Godavari water and protect our state's interests," Harish Rao said.