The Bharatiya Janata Party has asked Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy to call for an all-party meeting on serious issues like sharing of river waters and collaborating with neighbouring States on irrigation projects so that a right decision can be taken by the State government before entering into an agreement with agencies/governments outside Andhra Pradesh.

Cautioning the Chief Minister against blindly believing in the proposals put forward by Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao, Nehru Yuva Kendra vice-chairman and BJP State vice-president S. Vishnuvardhan Reddy at a press conference here on Monday said that KCR was a shrewd politician and would never settle for a benefit to Andhra Pradesh.

“Please remember that any Chief Minister for that matter will not settle for a big benefit for another at the cost of interest of their own State and we have live examples in the form of Karnataka and Maharashtra, which have severely damaged our lower riparian rights by building Allamatti or Babli projects,” he observed.

Polavaram

Expressing concern over the likely unavailability of sufficient water for the Polavaram project after the Kaleshwaram gets operational, he said that Rayalaseema interests would be severely affected in addition to those of the Krishna Delta region. He promised to fight for the rights of Andhra Pradesh even if it meant to go against its own party (BJP) either in Maharashtra or Karnataka, Mr. Vishnuvarshan said.

He recalled how the BJP had fought against its own party people during the Babli issue when cases were filed against Andhra Pradesh leaders.

Referring to the State’s welfare scheme where farmers were supposed to be paid ₹12,500 (including tenant farmers), the total benefit that should accrue to a farmer was ₹18,500 including ₹6,000 to be given by the Centre.

The YSRCP government should not include the Centre’s ₹6,000 in its amount of ₹12,500, which would mean not fulfilling the promise of Navaratnalu.