TG govt. letting A.P. continue ‘water theft’ with Polavaram project: Harish Rao

HYDERABAD

Senior BRS leader and Deputy Floor Leader in the Assembly T. Harish Rao has accused the Revanth Reddy Government of cooperating with Andhra Pradesh in a methodical manner for “river water theft” through the Polavaram-Nallamalasagar Link Project (PNLP).

Except the change of name from Polavaram-Banakacherla Link Project (PBLP) to PNLP, A.P.’s water theft plan is one and the same, while the Congress Government in Telangana is washing off its hands by releasing backdated letters after the raise of voice by BRS and holding occasional press conferences despite the BRS efforts to wake the government up from deep slumber, he said.

It was with the fingers of Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy that his AP counterpart and mentor N. Chandrababu Naidu was hurting the eye of Telangana people and the present Congress Government was continuing the injustice heaped on Telangana people in the matter of river water sharing and utilisation started by the party governments in combined AP, Mr. Harish Rao said addressing a press conference here on Friday.

The Revanth Reddy Government was scripting the death sentence to Telangana’s rightful share in river waters at a meeting of the irrigation department authorities of the two States and chaired by Chairman of the Central Water Commission (CWC) in New Delhi on Friday.

An examination of the events related to PBLP/PNLP would clearly indicate that there was a conspiracy to support AP’s plans, the former minister for irrigation said and explained that Mr. Revanth Reddy attended a meeting at Delhi in July last after repeatedly refusing to attend it and discussed the issue of PBLP after making it clear before the meeting that it was not in the agenda.

In the meeting, Mr. Reddy had agreed for a joint committee of irrigation/water resources officials to discuss the issue. Later, the State Government (Telangana) moved the Supreme Court after the last date for filing bids for the project, giving an indirect nod/no objection for the project. The writ petition was withdrawn as the Apex Court had observed that there was no substance in it.

Mr. Harish Rao sought to know why the irrigation authorities from the State were attending the meeting after writing to the Ministry of Jal Shakti and specifying conditions to stop work on the preparation of detailed project report of PNLP and also to stop the process of clearances including the pre-feasibility report. He asked whether the Centre had agreed for both since the meeting was being attended.

Reminding the good work done by the previous BRS government on the irrigation front, Mr. Harish Rao said the Economic Survey Report submitted to Parliament on January 29 had complimented Kaleshwaram and Mission Kakatiya interventions to increase the irrigated area in Telangana phenomenally.