Will fight for seven dam mandals, says K Chandrasekhar Rao

Hyderabad: Telangana Chief Minister-designate K. Chandrasekhar Rao on Tuesday warned of serious repercussions if the Centre goes ahead with the plan to merge seven mandals of Khammam district which will get submerged under the Polavaram project in Telangana with Andhra Pradesh.

The Telangana government would fight the issue legally to protect the interests of the state. “Mr Narendra Modi is the Prime Minister of the entire country. He cannot take sides with one state,” he remarked.

“There are popularly elected governments in both the states. The PM should consult both the states. We will strongly oppose an Ordinance and take up legal battle. We have already discussed the issue with a popular Supreme Court lawyer. He made it clear that it (Ordinance) will not stand scrutiny of the court and will be struck down,” he said in New Delhi on Tuesday.

Mr Chandrasekhar Rao further reminded that the governments of Chhattisgarh and Odisha had opposed the project while they had demanded a change in the design of the project to save a large number of villages from getting submerged.

Stating that the Centre was contemplating to bring in an Ordinance at the first Cabinet meeting to be chaired by Mr Modi, Mr Rao said if it goes ahead, it would be  “unconstitutional, undemocratic which will not be digested by the people of Telangana”.”