Former Water Resources Minister Devineni Umamaheswara Rao has said the State government should continue to effectively argue for its rights before the Justice Brijesh Kumar Tribunal and the Supreme Court.
Addressing the media here on Saturday, Mr. Rao said he was disappointed with the silence of Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy over critical issues during his meeting with his Telangana counterpart K. Chandrasekhar Rao in Hyderabad on Friday.
Maharashtra and Karnataka were fighting together to deny Andhra Pradesh the allocation made by the Bachawat Tribunal. Andhra Pradesh should also continue to make arguments before the Brijesh Kumar Tribunal against Telangana, which was also trying to deny us our rightful share of the Krishna and Godavari waters, he said.
Only what was decided by the Supreme Court and the tribunal was binding on the States, Mr. Rao asserted, implying that it was not possible for the States to come to an agreement.
‘Works slowed down’
Mr. Reddy was duty bound to tell the people what transpired at the meeting over sharing of the river waters and why work on several important irrigation projects that were beneficial to the farmers of the Rayalaseema districts of Kadapa, Kurnool and Chittoor was slowed down.
About the proposal to lift Godavari water directly to Srisailam, he said the government had asked WAPCOS to prepare a plan for taking Godavari waters to the Bollapalli Reservoir in Guntur district on a viaduct (an aqueduct) over the Krishna so that the upstream States of Maharashtra, Karnataka and now Telangana could not make any claims.
Mr, Rao said he expected Mr. Reddy to say something after visiting Polavaram a day before he went for the inauguration of Kaleswaram project.
