BRS urges CM to move court against Karnataka’s Almatti height hike plan

Hyderabad: BRS leaders on Thursday demanded the Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy to file a contempt petition against the Karnataka government which has proposed increasing the height of Almatti, which will cause huge damage to Telangana.

Addressing a press conference here at Telangana Bhavan along with S Bharat Kumar and P Shashidhar Reddy, senior leader B Vinod Kumar said that Karnataka and Maharashtra Chief Ministers held meetings on Wednesday. Krishna Tribunal gave its verdict regarding the height of the Almatti project in 2013. There were concerns expressed in the united Andhra Pradesh state over this verdict. Against the backdrop of the concerns, the then AP government filed an SLP in the Supreme Court, but the tribunal’s verdict was stayed. In 2014, the Telangana government also took steps to continue the Supreme Court stay.

“While the Supreme Court stay was in place, the Karnataka government is trying to increase the height of the Almatti project. The Karnataka government decided in a cabinet meeting to acquire 1.33 lakh acres of land for the expansion of the Almatti project,” said Vinod Kumar, adding Karnataka had set a target of spending Rs 70,000 crore in two years for this land acquisition.

Stating that there is a Congress government in Karnataka, Vinod Kumar said that it has been two days since the decision on the Karnataka dam was taken, but CM Revanth Reddy has not responded yet. “Our state government should respond immediately to the decision taken by Karnataka to increase the dam level while the Supreme Court stay is pending. When Karnataka is illegally increasing the dam level, why Revanth Reddy was not speaking out, he asked.

He pointed out that the Maharashtra CM Fadnavis responded to Karnataka’s decision and said that if the height is increased, two districts of his state, Sangli and Kolhapur, will be flooded. Fadnavis had also warned that they would block the increase in the dam level under any circumstances. Revanth Reddy should stop blaming KCR and stop Karnataka’s aggression on Almatti, demanded Vinod Kumar.

Soma Bharat Kumar said that the Congress government in the undivided AP brought an agreement of 299 TMC for Telangana and 511 TMC for AP. They said 299 TMC for Telangana for one year only. They are spreading falsehood that KCR has agreed to 299 TMC. In the AP state, Telangana did not get more than 100 TMC of Krishna water, he said.