Hyderabad, Oct 3 (UNI) Ahead of next week’s Apex Council’s meeting, Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao has urged the Centre to issue immediate direction to the Andhra Pradesh government to stop work on expansion of Pothireddypadu head regulator project and construction of Rayalaseema Lift Irrigation (RLI) Scheme.
Raising the issues pertaining to the fair and equitable share of waters in Krishna and Godavari rivers, Mr Rao in a letter to Union Jal Shakti Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat on Friday said that the original AP project itself is completely illegal as it has no water allocation, no approval by any statutory authority and is meant to send water outside Krishna Basin.
The illegal Pothireddypadu Head regulator project and its unauthorized expansion by Andhra Pradesh government will irreversibly compromise the interests and rights of Telangana, he said.
Though the RLI scheme was never sanctioned by any statutory body, Andhra Pradesh government has proposed to lift 3 TMC per day from the bottom of Srisailam reservoir , the Chief Minister said the state government also gone ahead with the finalization of tenders for the work despite our strong objections and the orders given by KEMB not to proceed with the project.
The AP government also issued an additional amount to approximately Rs 24,000 crore for works related to transfer of Krishna waters to the Pennar Basin, he pointed out.
Demanding that the Centre should handover the operational control of the Srisailam reservoir to the Telangana Government, he said that even after seven long years after the formation of the state on June 2, 2014, relief to Telangana in getting its rightful share has not been realized due to the gross inaction on the part of Government of India, he alleged.
Right of Telangana to know about its share and efforts made by the government in this year, he said that every state of the Indian Union has a constitutional right to get a fair and equitable allocation of river waters. However, even after seven years of its formation, Telangana state is still waiting to know its legitimate share of waters, Mr Rao added.
We demand to know the reason for such injustice to a legitimate state of Telangana and once again request the Government of India to take immediate steps to address this matter in a time bound manner, the Chief Minister said in his 14-page letter to Mr Shekhawat ahead of the proposed Apex Council second meeting slated to be held on Tuesday.
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