Telugu Desam leader Alla Venkata Gopalakrishnaiah hailed the directive of the Supreme Court asking the Central Government to convene the Apex Council under the provisions of the Andhra Pradesh Re-organisation Act to take a decision on the Palamuru Rangareddy and Dindi Lift Irrigation Schemes that have been taken up by Telangana.
In a statement here on Wednesday, Mr. Gopalakrishnaiah, a member of the farmers’ Apex Committee constituted by the State Government under the Andhra Pradesh Farmers’ Management of Irrigation systems Act, 1997, said the Supreme Court on Wednesday heard the arguments of the different parties in connection with a petition filed by the apex committee a few months ago. The committee contended that under the A.P. Re-organisation Act, it was mandatory for the Telangana government to get the approval for these two projects from the Apex Council which according to the Act consisted of the Union Minister for Water Resources and the Chief Ministers of the two sibling States, Mr. Gopalakrishnaiah said.
The three-member bench after listening to the counsels of the Union Government and the two States directed that the Apex Council be convened to resolve the problem of the two projects, he said.
The A.P. government had been repeatedly asking the Centre to convene the Apex Council to resolve the problem of these schemes and the jurisdiction of the Krishna River Management Board (KRMB).
