For the second consecutive day on Sunday, agitators demanding a unified Andhra Pradesh closed the gates of Kandaleru reservoir of the Telugu Ganga project and stopped drinking water supply to Chennai city for some time.
Activists of various political parties, who enforced a bandh on Saturday, demanding that the Centre drop its move to bifurcate Andhra Pradesh, downed the gates of the reservoir located in Rapur mandal in Sri Potti Sriramulu, Nellore district. They urged the irrigation officials not to supply water to Tamil Nadu.
However, the officials lifted the gates by Saturday evening and released water. But the agitators reached the dam again on Sunday and closed the gates. They entered into an argument with the staff.
The Andhra Pradesh Government has an agreement with Tamil Nadu to supply 15 tmcft of water from the Krishna river in a phased manner to solve the drinking water problem in Chennai city and, so far, a quantity of 4.5 tmcft has been released from the Telugu Ganga.
Meanwhile, former minister and TDP district president Somireddy Chandramohan Reddy alleged that the Centre's announcement on Telangana was a conspiracy by some leaders to hamper the development of Andhra Pradesh by dividing the State. "Some leaders belonging to neighbouring states are trying to divide the state on the pretext of Telangana movement. We will stop water supply to Tamil Nadu if the government did not consider our demand for an integrated Andhra Pradesh", he said.
