Andhra Pradesh Congress Committee president N. Raghuveera Reddy has said that the Chief Ministers of Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana should together take an appropriate decision over construction of a flood flow canal for the Tungabhadra reservoir to recover the States’ share of water going waste into the river.
Mr. Reddy was speaking to presspersons during his visit to the city on Sunday. He said the issue should be discussed apolitically as it was beneficial to all.According to him, the proposal to construct the flood flow canal was mooted long back but no decision had been taken.
It was only in October 2013, Ministers and department officials of Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh met officially for the first time in Bengaluru to discuss the major issues — modernisation of Tungabhadra canals, widening and construction of flood flow canal.
The Ministers had decided to entrust the task to the Tungabhadra Board to study its feasibility and submit a report.
“After that, Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu met a few months ago, and agreed for modernisation of canals. Recently, when I met Mr. Siddaramaiah in this regard, he said the Chief Ministers of all the three States had to take a decision together,” Mr. Reddy said and reiterated that the time was ripe to take a positive decision in the matter.
Mr. Reddy accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of “dedicating himself to the welfare of two people – Adani and Ambani – and ignoring the welfare of the people of the country, especially the poor and the needy”.
He charged Mr. Modi of not taking a decision to reduce the price of petrol and diesel during his trip to Austria. He also took a dig at the Modi government for reducing the allocation for the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MNREGA). “Modi government should rectify its mistake or else Congress will launch an agitation against any of its attempts to dilute the pro-poor programmes introduced by the UPA government”, he cautioned.
