Minister for Water Resources Devineni Umamaheswara Rao on Tuesday demanded that Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhara Rao prove that his government was not trying to obstruct the completion of the Polavaram Project, by withdrawing the petition filed in Supreme Court.
Addressing the media here, the Minister said the Telangana Chief Minister went on record saying that his State was not against the Polavaram Project, but a look at the petition filed in the Supreme Court by his government clearly showed otherwise.
The Telangana government should also withdraw the petitions it filed against the irrigation projects of Andhra Pradesh before the Brijesh Kumar Tribunal, he said.
The Minister said if one looked at the various points in the petition filed by Telangana, it was quite evident that efforts were being made to stop construction of Polavaram Project. The petition appealed to the court to stop building of the dam until various studies and assessments were made.
It also asked the court to constitute an independent expert committee to supervise its construction.
Mr. Chandrasekhara Rao conveniently forgot that Telangana had agreed to extend full support for the construction of the project and even gave in writing that it had no objection to construction of the dam at the time of bifurcation five years ago, the Minister said. A few days before elections, Telangana filed the petition in the Supreme Court to favour leader of the Opposition Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy, Mr. Umamaheswara Rao alleged.
Mr. Chandrasekhara Rao also changed his tune with regard to Special Category Status (SCS) for Andhra Pradesh, the Minister pointed out. While the Telangana leader opposed SCS for Andhra Pradesh on several occasions earlier, he was now saying that he would fight for SCS along with Mr. Jagan.
The Minister demanded that Mr. Chandrasekhara Rao immediately announce that his government would withdraw cases in the Supreme Court and the Brijesh Kumar Tribunal so that the people of Andhra Pradesh would know that he really meant what he said about not trying to create obstacles for the Polavaram Project, which was the lifeline of Andhra Pradesh.