Foil designs of upper riparian States: Apex Council meeting

Vijayawada: Farmers’ leaders Vadde Sobhanadreeswara Rao and Yerneni Nagendranath and Rythu Sangham leaders expressed concern over the illegal construction of irrigation projects by the Telangana government on the River Krishna. They were speaking at a round-table conference organised on Wednesday to discuss the outcome of the Apex Council meeting held at New Delhi last week by Union Minister for Water Resources Uma Bharati.

The leaders expressed the apprehension that Krishna delta would suffer huge losses with the construction of illegal projects by Telangana and said that the State government might fight to protect the rights of the farmers and people of Andhra Pradesh. They said that Telangana was illegally constructing Palamuru-Rangareddyand Dindi projects on the Krishna and opined that Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu had failed to present the facts and problems of the State at the Apex Council meet.

They criticised the Chief Minister for not convening an all-party meet before leaving for the meeting in New Delhi and said that the suggestions made by Union Minster Uma Bharati were useless to Andhra Pradesh. They felt that the State should give a fitting reply to the designs of the upper riparian States, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra and Karnataka on the sharing of Krishna waters. In the same vein, the speakers said that an amicable solution should be found to the water disputes between the States without compromising on the interests of Andhra Pradesh.