Telangana CM K Chandrasekhar Rao hits out at AP over irrigation work

HYDERABAD: Days after Centre stalled key projects such as Kaleshwaram and Rayalaseema lift irrigation taken up by Telangana and AP respectively, CM K Chandrasekhar Rao on Monday trained his guns on AP government.
Launching a trenchant attack, KCR said AP allegations were baseless and their complaints would be countered with facts and figures to be placed before the Apex Council.
In what could be seen as a further dip in the bonhomie between KCR and his AP counterpart YS Jaganmohan Reddy, the CM said: “I extended the hand of friendship and voluntarily called the AP elders (read AP CM) to Hyderabad for a luncheon meeting. I spoke to them. I offered them to construct irrigation projects with mutual consent so that it would benefit farmers of both the states.”
KCR said instead of river waters going waste into the sea, they should be used effectively. “Since both states share borders and have Krishna and Godavari basins, I said ‘no basin and no egos’ as far as development and farmers are concerned. Despite this, AP is going on complaining about our projects without any basis and stalling them. We will come with up a strong argument and shut AP’s mouth at the Apex Council meeting which will be held soon,” KCR said.
The CM did not spare the Centre also on cooperative federalism. He said every state has rights and added that Telangana is constructing projects as per its rights. “The Centre is trying to curtail the rights of the states and making an issue out of nothing. We will expose Centre’s attitude towards an elected government in Telangana,” KCR said.
KCR held a meeting with senior irrigation officials on Monday in the wake of Union jal shakti minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat’s letter to both CMs on stopping irrigation projects being taken up by Telangana and AP till the Apex Council meeting is held and detailed project reports (DPRs) are submitted to the Centre.
The CM said the government went ahead with the projects as per the water allocations and rights in Krishna and Godavari basins and schemes that were permitted earlier. Even the Central Water Commission (CWC) had also given its permission, he recalled. “So far, Rs 23,000 crore was spent on the projects. Many projects approved by then united AP government and not completed are also being branded as new projects. This is meaningless,” the CM retorted.
He said some of the projects had to be redesigned to suit the requirements of the new state. He recalled that the separate Telangana state movement was championed mainly to fight large-scale injustice meted out to Telangana region by successive governments.
He picked holes in the jal shakti ministry raising objections to releasing water from Srisailam left bank powerhouse to Nagarjuna Sagar project. “Priority should be given to fill Nagarjuna Sagar before releasing water to other projects. Srisailam is not an irrigation project. It is originally a hydel power project. Without knowing this, the Centre is objecting to water release from Srisailam,” KCR argued.
He also said AP had objected to Palamuru-Rangareddy project in the first Apex Council meeting. “It was not proper on the part of AP government to raise the issue of Palamuru-RR project again. We will bring this issue at the coming meeting,” KCR said.