Krishna river projects: Telangana to mount pressure on Centre for funding, approvals
The CM strongly stated that injustice was done to Telangana in water allocations owing to three reasons
By Newsmeter Network
Hyderabad: The Telangana government has decided to mount pressure on the Centre to get approvals and funding for all pending projects on the Krishna River.
Seeking to end a decade of injustice to the state on the issue of allocations of water and central funding for projects in the state, the Telangana delegation would strongly put forth its point of view at the apex meeting. As records show, in the first and second apex committee meetings, the BRS government leaders, including the then-CM KCR, did not bring up these issues.
Telangana would also demand its legally due share of water from the Godavari for Telangana, and it would emphatically state that it is and would utilize till the last drop from the allocated waters.
On the direction of Chief Minister Revanth Reddy, state Irrigation Minister N. Uttam Kumar Reddy wrote a letter to Union Jal Shakti Minister C.R. Patil on Monday, requesting him to resolve the long-pending Telangana water sharing issue.
It was decided that the Telangana delegation would meet the union minister in the national capital on July 16 to insist on achieving all of Telanganaās fair water share, besides approval for all projects under construction and water allocation for new projects.
The Chief Minister will meet the Union Minister and request him to clear the projects taken up on the River Krishna and provide financial assistance for the construction of projects along with water allocations. The CM already asked the irrigation minister to find permanent solutions and protect the water interests of Telangana in both the Krishna and Godavari basins.
The CM strongly stated that injustice was done to Telangana in water allocations owing to three reasons: the indifference and betrayal by the BRS for not fighting for Telagnana's fair share of waters for a decade, the lack of pressure from the BJP state leaders on their national party, and the Centre for not implementing all promises.
During their decade, the KCR government failed miserably in protecting the water rights of the Telangana people. Revanth Reddy said that the KCR government easily agreed to only 299 TMC of water for Telangana and 512 TMC to AP, which was a big betrayal.
KCR also ignored all illegally constructed projects upstream of Srisailam in Andhra Pradesh and remained a mute spectator, even condoning the actions of the neighboring state, when AP diverted Krishna waters arbitrarily.
CM Revanth also said that the BRS government left incomplete irrigation projects constructed on the Krishna in the erstwhile united AP without providing water allocations. The BRS government abandoned the life-saving Pranahita -Chevella project undertaken on Tummidihetti on Godavari after spending Rs. 11,000 crores and built the Kaleshwaram project and wasted over Rs 1 lakh crore of public money, for the greed of commissions, the Chief Minister said.
However, the Congress government will not only reverse the BRS last decade's neglect but also, for the first time, present all pending projects, seeking all water rights and Central funds from the Centre at an apex meeting. The Congress government would protect all water rights of Telangana.
