An all-party meeting on the water crisis faced by Krishna delta held here on Thursday resolved to stage road blockade in West Godavari, Krishna, Guntur and Prakasam districts tomorrow to exert pressure on the government to get the stay on water release from Nagarjunasagar to Krishna delta vacated . It demanded that the State government file an implead petition in the High Court.
The Andhra Pradesh Rythanga Samakhya has already filed a counter in the High Court in response to a PIL which brought the water release from Sagar to a halt but it is the government that has to take similar legal action when the case comes up for hearing on Monday, September 3.
August 27, which was the earlier deadline, appears to have been missed at the behest of “vested interests,” including those belonging to Telangana who filed PIL on partisan grounds, the leaders opined.
While according priority to releasing water from Nagarjunasagar in the next few days, the government should expedite the Pulichintala project at least by the end of 2013. TDP district president and Chilakaluripet MLA Prathipati Pulla Rao said water is being released to NSP only after the projects at Almatti Narayanpur, Srisailam and Jurala are filled. It is in violation of the Bachawat Award, which allows water release in proportion to the States’ share. But this is not being done as there is no proper Central monitoring mechanism that would ensure apportionment of river waters as per prior agreements.
Nandigama MLA Devineni Uma Maheswara Rao said the government would act only if the farmers resorted to direct action.
Former Minister Vadde Sobhanadreeswara Rao said both the Central and State governments failed in preventing the crisis.
Former MPs Edlapati Venkata Rao and Y.V. Rao, MLAs Dhulipalla Narendra Kumar, K. Sridhar, G.V. Anjaneyulu, former Ministers S. Aruna, J.R. Pushparaj and Kagitha Venkata Rao, CPI district secretary Muppalla Nageswara Rao and others participated in the deliberations.
