Telangana Chief Minister Revanth Reddy said his Andhra Pradesh counterpart Jagan Mohan Reddy took undue advantage of his friendship with KCR.
Published Feb 04, 2024 | 9:11 PM ⚊ Updated Feb 04, 2024 | 9:13 PM
The Srisailam dam across the river Krishna. (Supplied)
Telangana Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy has challenged the Opposition for a debate on the Krishna river projects issue in the Assembly.
He was replying to the BRS charge that the Congress government in Telangana had surrendered projects to the Krishna River Management Board (KRMB) without fighting for a 50-percent share of the Krishna waters.
The chief minister on Sunday, 4 February, accused the BRS of surrendering control of the Krishna river irrigation projects to the Centre and making a mess of sharing Krishna waters with Andhra Pradesh.
He dared BRS chief K Chandrashekar Rao, his son KT Rama Rao, and nephew Harish Rao to answer the questions that he and Irrigation Minster N Uttam Kumar Reddy would raise in the Assembly after publishing a white paper on irrigation.
“The Assembly session will commence very soon. I am prepared for a debate on the kind of injustice done to Telangana over distributing Krishna water when the BRS was in power,” Revanth Reddy told reporters at the state Secretariat.
“I do not care even if it (the session) extends for 48 hours. I am asking KCR, Harish Rao, and KTR to come to the Assembly with a set of fresh clothes as the session will run continuously until the discussion is over,” he said.
“Let KCR stay in the House until the debate concludes. Let him not move out of the House citing pain here and there. I know what kind of pain he is now suffering from. It is originating from the loss of power,” the chief minister taunted the BRS chief.
Revanth Reddy further said that the irrigation sector in Telangana had suffered more under KCR’s 10-year rule than when it was part of Andhra Pradesh for 60 years.
The chief minister said over the past decade, KCR and Harish Rao, who was the irrigation minister in the first BRS government and the finance minister in his second term, were responsible for Telangana losing its legitimate share of Krishna waters.
Revanth Reddy said that the minutes that the Centre had recorded when the KRMB met in Delhi recently were misleading because Telangana never said that it was ready to surrender the control of the irrigation projects or outlets to the KRMB.
The Centre, without recording in the minutes the full details of the Telangana’s objections, said that it had consented to surrendering the projects.
The state only asked the Centre to first resolve the issue of sharing Krishna waters before asking Telangana to surrender the projects, the chief minister said.
Tracing the history of KRMB proceedings over the past 10 years, he said it was former Telangana chief minister KCR and his Andhra Pradesh counterpart N Chandrababu Naidu (20014-19) and later KCR and YS Jagan Mohan Reddy (2019 to now) who had caused incalculable harm to Telangana’s interests.
Revanth Reddy said that it was the BRS government that consented in 2015 to provide 299 tmcft of the total 811 tmcft of water allocated to both Telangana and Andhra Pradesh.
The BRS government allowed the agreement to continue and recently consented to its continuation, saying the matter (sharing of waters) had been referred to the tribunal.
“Who is the betrayer of Telangana’s interest? Is it KCR or the present Congress government?” asked Revanth Reddy.
He pointed out that 68 percent of the catchment area of the Krishna river was in Telangana, and therefore, according to international water sharing guidelines, the state should get that much share of water.
But KCR or his officials never raised the issue — not even for equal share — when in power, said the chief minister.
Revanth Reddy, referring to the projects that the Andhra government was constructing on the Krishna river upstream of the Srisailam project, said that the water belongs to Telangana since Krishna first enters the state in the Mahbubnagar district (Indira Priyadarsini Jurala Project).
It then flows into the Kurnool district in Andhra, where Tungabhadra joins it, before flowing to Srisailam.
Though Telangana has planned lift irrigation projects on the Krishna river at Srisailam, it would not be of much help since Andhra has been planning the Rayalaseema and Muchumarri Lift irrigation Schemes, which together would take away 8 tmcft of water every day.
The chief minister said Jagan Mohan Reddy took undue advantage of his friendship with KCR by forcing the latter not to object to the new projects on the Krishna river upstream of the Srisailam project.
“Jagan Mohan Reddy and KCR had a six-hour meeting on irrigation projects in the two states on 14 January, 2020, which led to the issuance of GO (No: 203) by the Andhra Pradesh government for the Rayalaseema Lift Irrigation scheme,” said Revanth Reddy.
He added that the AP Reorganisation Act of 2014 clearly stated that the projects on the Krishna river should be under the control of the KRMB. He sought to know why the BRS did not fight against the provision at the time of the drafting of the Act.
“At that time, KCR was an MP and K Keshava Rao of the BRS was in the Rajya Sabha, but they did not raise their voice,” he said.
The chief minister said that the Congress government would continue to fight for a fair share of Krishna waters. He said he was proposing to the Centre to bring the projects on the river in the other two riparian states — Maharashtra and Karnataka — under the KRMB.
“For deciding a just share of Krishna waters for Telangana, first it has to be determined how much catchment area Krishna river has in each state. Water should be allocated to states based on the catchment area,” he said.
“If both Karnataka and Maharashtra use most of the water, the tail-end areas of Telangana would get very little water. There might not be any water at all. There would only be slush in the river,” he said.
Revanth Reddy dared Jagan Mohan Reddy to send his policemen to the Nagarjuna Sagar Project to take away water for his state.
“KCR was watching the tamasha as Jagan Mohan Reddy, a day ahead of the Assembly elections in Telangana, took away water from the NSP using the police force. Can you call KCR the protector of Telangana’s interests? Let Jagan dare send his forces now,” a combative Revanth Reddy said.
