Hyderabad: Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy demanded his AP counterpart N Chandrababu Naidu to put on hold further construction of the Godavari-Banakacharla project until the water sharing dispute between the two Telugu states is resolved.

Reddy appealed to Naidu to use his good offices and clout with the Centre to solve the water sharing disputes amicably.

Holding former chief minister K Chandrashekar Rao responsible for Andhra Pradesh taking up the Banakacharla project, Reddy also blasted Union minister G Kishan Reddy for not supporting Telangana for stalling the controversial project as a means to protect the state’s interests.

Addressing the press after a power point presentation on the Banakacharla project at the Secretariat, the Chief minister said that the government would lodge complaint with the central government against the project and subsequently approach courts if the Centre did not respond to their demand. Revanth Reddy urged Naidu to issue a NOC to the extent that Telangana could utilise 1000 TMC of flood water in river Godavari and 500 TMC in Krishna. He added that if AP agreed, the TG government would support the Banakacharla project. Meanwhile, Reddy strongly objected to Andhra Pradesh lifting flood waters from Godavari without any allocations.

Exposing the double standards of BRS on the Banakacharla project, the Chief Minister disclosed the details of the apex council meeting held in September 2016, and said that it was KCR, who had consented to AP lifting Godavari waters. KCR had informed that 3,000 TMCs of water was going waste into the sea from river Godavari, he pointed out.

During meeting with YS Jagan Mohan Reddy, KCR on August 13, 2019 announced that Rayalaseema would be made ‘Ratanala Seema’ again. KCR and Jagan met four times at Pragathi Bhavan and decided to transfer Godavari waters to Rayalaseema, he said.

Details of the meeting of the two CMs were also disclosed by the then ministers Eatala Rajender and Buggana Rajendra Prasad, Revanth explained and added that using these meeting minutes as a reference, Andhra Pradesh was constructing the Banakacharla project. The Chief Minister fired a salvo at KCR and former Irrigation minister T Harish Rao on giving assurance to AP as regards Godavari water utilization without specific allocations in the apex council meeting.

“KCR and Harish should be hanged to death for not protecting the interests of Telangana state. He also criticized KCR for not completing any project despite spending more than Rs 2 lakh crores on irrigation during the BRS rule", he said.

Revanth Reddy said that he will seek appointments of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and union ministers during the Parliament session and brief them about the Banakacharla project and the problems being faced by Telangana state. “We are ready to fight legally if justice is not rendered,” he said. The Chief minister wondered why Kishan Reddy had skipped such a crucial meeting and suspected that the union minister was playing a foul play to protect the union government from the threat of withdrawal of Naidu ‘s support in case the project was stalled.