Minister for Water Resources Devineni Umamaheswara Rao stuck to his guns saying that problems should be resolved at the negotiation table.
Initially his Telangana counterpart said that Kurnool Collector wrote a letter and demanded that the State government instruct the official to withdraw it.
But today, an SMS was being shown, but there was nothing offensive in the SMS which said that work should be stopped as there was a threat of law and order problem. Attempts were being made to precipitate matters.
“Karnataka is taking away our water. Both Andhra Pradesh and Telangana should join hands to stop that,” Mr. Umamaheswara Rao reiterated.
Telugu Desam Party sources said it was not Mr. Umamaheswara Rao who was going on a confrontationist path, but Mr. Harish Rao.
It was highly inappropriate of Mr. Harish Rao to call Mr. Umamaheswara Rao and switch on the phone speaker so that the Telangana media could hear the conversation. It was also improper to say that Mr. Umamaheswara Rao was not responding to Mr. Harish Rao’s mobile calls, party sources said.
Rajolibanda Diversion Scheme
With the rains coming Rajolibanda Diversion Scheme (RDS) was not an issue and to set a two-day deadline to resolve the problem was a clear strategy to precipitate matters, the party workers said. The Telangana Minister was trying to side-track the issue and precipitate issues with ulterior motives, TDP leaders said.
Even as Mr. Umamaheswara Rao denied asking Kurnool Collector to write a letter to Raichur Deputy Commissioner to stop repairs on inter-State Rajolibanda Diversion Scheme on Tungabhadra, the Telangana government on Wednesday released an SMS sent by the Collector Vijaya Mohan Challa to the Executive Engineer of the project with precisely the same demand.
The SMS from the Collector’s phone said “do not start the work without Government of AP directions as there is agitating mood in the farmers in that area and they will seriously object it and will result in law and order problem”.
To this, EE Sriprakash replied that the work would be resumed only after alerting the Collector and getting the latter’s clearance. Mr. Sriprakash earlier informed the Collector that the work on RDS had begun on Monday as per the understanding between Irrigation Ministers of AP and Karnataka.
The Raichur Deputy Commissioner might also speak to the Collector. On Monday itself, the Revenue Divisional Officer at Adoni in Kurnool Ch. Obulesu wrote a separate letter to the EE saying the AP government was concerned about the work without its knowledge. Asking the work to be stopped, he said the general public of AP was very much alarmed and opposed the same.
“We anticipate large-scale agitation in AP, which may lead to severe law and order problem at RDS site”. The copies of the letter were addressed to Collectors and Superintendents of Kurnool and Raichur.
Telugu Desam leaders say Harish Rao is going on a confrontationist path
