Naidu wants Govt to reject Brijesh Tribunal Award

• Blames Cong for its failure in getting State’s due share of river waters
• Says Govt engaged a weak advocate

Vijayawada: Telugu Desam Party chief N Chandrababu Naidu here on Wednesday came down heavily on the Congress, both in the State and at the Centre, alleging that the party was doing injustice to the Telugu people. He criticised the Congress for its failure in getting the State’s due share from the Krishna river water in the Brijesh Kumar Tribunal Award.

Naidu participated in the day-long dharna on Krishna river bed in the downstream of Prakasam Barrage here as part of the party’s protest against the Brijesh Kumar Tribunal on sharing of the Krishna water among the three States of Maharashtra, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh. He said that the State government had not initiated any step to protect the State’s interests which resulted in the Tribunal awarding more water to Karnataka and Maharashtra and denying the lower riparian rights of Andhra Pradesh. He found fault with the Congress government for engaging a ‘weak advocate’ to present the argument before the Tribunal. He recalled how the Telugu Desam government during his regime had engaged successful advocates like Parasaran against Karnataka increasing the Almatti dam height. He said he fought against Karnataka involving several other chief ministers as mediators to resolve the inter-State water dispute. He said that the Brijesh Tribunal had calculated the water on an average of 65 years out of 100 years which was a great loss to the lower riparian State. This would help the two upper States to avoid discharging water unless there is heavy floods. He wondered why Brijesh Tribunal took just 65 years average when the data of 112 years is available with the government. He also blamed the Tribunal for calculating the dependable water at 65 per cent of the 100 years against 75 per cent dependability considered by the previous Bachawat Tribunal. The Central Water Commission cleared new projects on any river basing on the 75 per cent dependability and wondered how Brijesh Tribunal had calculated the water at 65 per cent dependability.

Chandrababu Naidu said that the TD had first planned the maximum utilization of surplus water by planning projects like Telugu Ganga, Nettempadu, Kalwakurthy, Galeri-Nagari, Velugonda and Handri-Niva. He said that the Brijesh Tribunal Award would hit the irrigation and drinking water interests of Krishna, Guntur, Prakasam, Nellore, Kadapa, Kurnool, Ananthapur, Chittoor, West Godavari, Khammam, Nalgonda, Mahaboobnagar, Ranga Reddy and Hyderabad districts.

Takes dig at PM, Sonia

The TD chief took a dig at UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi and Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh for playing with the lives of the Telugu-speaking people. He criticised the Prime Minister for denying interview to him in Delhi. He said he had written a letter seeking the Prime Minister’s interview four days in advance and had stayed in Delhi for two days waiting for the Prime Minister to give him time. However, he said that the Prime Minister had refused to meet him at the behest of Sonia Gandhi.

“He (PM) did not get clearance from 10, Janpath (Sonia’s residence) to spare time for me. He has become a puppet in the hands of Sonia Gandhi,” Chandrababu Naidu said. He said that the Prime Minister had time to meet a person accused in financial fraud cases but had no time to meet him.