VIJAYAWADA: The filing of a Special Leave Petition (SLP) in the Supreme Court opposing the observations of the Brijesh Kumar Tribunal on Section 89 of the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act is a futile exercise and against the interests of farmers from Andhra Pradesh, says Yerneni Nagendranath, former Irrigation and Drainage Board member and president of the A.P. Farmers’ Federation.
Talking to The Hindu on Tuesday, Mr. Nagendranath said that he was surprised to learn that the counsel for Andhra Pradesh filed an SLP in the Supreme Court opposing the observations of the Brijesh Kumar Tribunal the very same day the apex court refused to admit a similar petition filed by Telangana.
Mr. Nagendranath said that he had submitted a representation to Minister for Water Resources Devineni Umamaheswara Rao a few days ago, asking him to prevail on the State government not to file an SLP.
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But the Minister said that the legal counsel was keen on filing the SLP.
Mr. Nagendranath said that further delay would only work against the interests of the farmers of both Andhra Pradesh and Telangana.
The two States should, therefore, work together and fight against the upper riparian States of Maharashtra and Karnataka.
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Several unauthorised projects were coming up in these two States, and once these projects were completed there was little anyone could do to remove them, Mr. Nagendranath cautioned.
Telangana and A.P. should quickly put aside their differences and get ready to fight for what was rightfully due to them.
He said the two States should work for the establishment of the Krishna River Authority, with powers to prevent building of unauthorised projects and abuse of water.
Legal experts said that Telangana, which hired some of the best legal brains in the country to file the SLP, should have been aware that the apex court would not admit it. It, therefore, used the SLP to level “allegations” against the erstwhile Andhra Pradesh.
Telangana would have stood a better chance had it consulted Andhra Pradesh before filing its petition, the legal experts said.