Telangana to claim Godavari surplus water too

Hyderabad: Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao on Wednesday said that Telangana government would impress upon the Centre to seek Godavari’s surplus water too.

Addressing a meeting organised to felicitate the Chief Minister for signing the historic pact with Maharashtra, KCR said he would send a delegation of MPs led by Irrigation Minister T Harish Rao to Delhi with a memorandum seeking surplus water of Godavari. KCR said that River Godavari has assured water of 1,480 tmc ft of water and off that Telangana’s share is 950 tmc ft.

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Highlights

• KCR receives grand welcome at Begumpet as he arrives by a special flight after signing agreement with Maharashtra government
• The agreement would be written in golden words in the history of Telangana, says CM
• Challenges TPCC president Uttam Kumar Reddy to prove that Tummidihatti agreement for 152 metres was made earlier and offered to resign and take political sanyas if it was true
• Claims that TRS government was non corrupt and added that Prime Minister Narendra Modi too had praised the government
• The Telangana agitation and TRS would not have come had the Congress provided water to 98 lakh acres
• Says he will ensure North Telangana and districts of Warangal, Nalgonda and Nizamabad get water for two crops within two years
• Asks the opposition party leaders to prove corruption charges or get ready to face legal action
• To go on bus yatra to districts soon

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Explaining how he succeeded in inking the pact with Maharashtra, the Chief Minister said it required a lot of diplomacy and detailed presentation of facts and figures before he could convince his counterpart that such an agreement would be helpful to both the states.

Notwithstanding the hurdles being created by the opposition parties, KCR said that he would go ahead with the construction of the projects to ensure that one crore acres of land in Telangana State gets irrigated.

Reacting to the claim of the Congress that an agreement on construction of Tammidihatti barrage was entered into during Congress regime and the height was fixed at 152 metres, the Chief Minister said that if the TPCC president can prove his claim, he would straight away drive down to Raj Bhavan and submit his resignation and would take political sanyas. “If the Congress cannot prove, the leaders should get ready to face legal action,” he said.

KCR alleged that the Congress party leaders remained silent when the erstwhile governments were doing injustice to Telangana.

He said that the Congress party leaders destroyed Telangana. He said if the Congress was honest and if it had developed Telangana then the agitation for separate state and birth of TRS would not have taken place. The Chief Minister said that so far he has been maintaining silence but henceforth he would initiate legal measures against those who have been making false claims and trying to mislead the people with regard to irrigation projects.

“You cannot distract KCR from my work with your kirkiri”, he said. The government was committed to complete Kaleswaram project by 2018 and will prove that it can supply water for two crops. “KCR will not back off. TRS has history of sacrifices,” he said and added that very soon he would take up ‘bus yatra’ in districts.