Hyderabad: Defying the party's call for restraint on the issue, Congress MLAs P. Janardhan Reddy and M. Sashidhar Reddy, have again voiced their opposition to increasing the capacity of the Pothireddypadu Head Regulator.

Addressing a press conference here on Saturday, the MLAs said they would stick to their stand on the head regulator as the release of water through it to the Rayalaseema region was detrimental to Telangana's interests.

They also sought a clarification on the allocation of Krishna waters to Telangana. It may be recalled that APCC president K. Keshava Rao had directed party MLAs not to speak on the issue following a heated argument at the Congress Legislature Party (CLP) meeting on Thursday. Several MLAs from the three regions had attacked Mr. Janardhan Reddy for raising the issue at the CLP meeting and a Minister had even sought action against him.

Criticising YSR

They accused Chief Minister Y. S. Rajasekhara Reddy of not acting like a statesman and ignoring the Telangana region. "He should behave like the head of a family. The PCC president's warnings notwithstanding, we are going to raise these issues," they said.

"Our own partymen might not appreciate our stand, but the farmer-leaders from Krishna district like Yerneni Nagendranath Chowdary are hailing our stand," they said.

Mr. Janardhan Reddy said "political leaders are taking contradictory stance on such water issues. It is bound to happen. After all the future is going to witness water wars".

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