Top Telangana BJP leaders led by party president Bandi Sanjay took up a one-day indefinite fast in protest against the Telangana Government's failure to halt the Andhra Pradesh Government from taking up capacity enhancement of the Pothireddypadu head regulator lift irrigation scheme on Wednesday.
While Mr. Sanjay took up the fast in the party office in Nampally, other leaders were protesting in their respective homes across the State including former MLC P. Sudhakar Reddy, former MLA NVVS Prabhakar and others.
The party leadership condemned the AP Government’s decision and also criticised the TS Government for its "failure" to prevent the neighbouring State from going ahead with the construction of increasing the head regulator enabling drawing of more water from the Srisailam reservoir which does against the Krishna River Management Boad (KRMB) and Brijesh Kumar tribunal orders.
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If the works are allowed to go ahead farmers living in the areas of Khammam, Rangareddy, Nalgonda and Mahabubnagar would be adversely affected. "Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao does not seem to be bothered about this development though it affects the irrigation interests of Telangana. His friendship with AP CM Jaganmohan Reddy and secret pacts has led to this situation. We have not been able to fully utilise the 299 TMC water allocated by the KRMB ," charged Mr. Sanjay.
The BJP has accused the AP Government of lifting 44,000 cusecs of water illegally instead of the permitted 11,000 cusecs from Srisailam and this was being enhanced to lift 80,000 cusecs through the latest government orders issued there. The party pointed out that TS has more ayacut and catchment area of Krishna than AP, hence needed more water.
Mr. Sudharkar Reddy also took the opportunity to demand the withdrawal of irrigation tenders for Kaleswaram and Sitarama Sagar multipurpose project. Calling for tenders during lockdown has caused doubts in the mind of the people as there also has been an ‘abnormal’ hike of rates,of various components without involving other eligible agencies.
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Police inaction
In a separate statement, city president & MLC N. Ramchander Rao has urged the city police commissioner to immediately take steps to ensure lockdown norms are strictly enforced in several parts of the twin cities considering that there has been a spike in cases. It was only because the police have been lax in implementing the social distancing norms and allowing people to move freely. This could have a grave effect on the entire capital, he warned.