Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) president K. Chandrasekhar Rao took a dig at the Opposition Telugu Desam Party (TDP) and the ruling Congress for keeping quiet on “illegal projects within the State to rob Telangana’s rightful share of river waters” such as Pothireddypadu and Polavaram and raising a hue and cry over Babli issue.
Speaking at the women’s wing meeting of Telangana Lecturers’ Forum (TLF) here on Sunday, he said that it was TRS that had been opposing Babli from the beginning and had filed a petition against the project first. Injustice was done to Telangana with the Supreme Court judgment on Babli, but the saving grace was appointment of a committee to supervise utilisation of water by Maharashtra from the project.
He urged intellectuals of the region to tell facts and the impact of Babli to people and as to who was responsible for the project. It was during Tummala Nageswara Rao’s stint as Irrigation Minister that tenders were called for Babli, but the then Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu, who later tried to garner political mileage from the issue, had kept quiet.
Crocodile tears
The TRS chief alleged that TDP leaders were shedding crocodile tears on Babli issue but it was ironic that they had not even sympathy for suicides of about 1,000 youth and students for the cause of Telangana after December 2009. He mentioned that it was during the present Congress regime Babli was completed.
If the two parties had any concern for Telangana people why were they keeping quiet on Pothireddypadu project which was designed to draw over 250 tmcft water illegally in 30 flood days. He demanded that Chief Minister N. Kiran Kumar Reddy convene an all-party meeting on Babli and lead a delegation to Delhi for taking up the matter with the Centre for justice.
Formation of Telangana State alone was a solution to the problems of the region as the leadership of Seemandhra leaders had forced it into backwardness after its merger with Coastal Andhra, he noted.
