Deal Maha' handy for TRS

Hyderabad: News that Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao will sign an agreement with the Maharashtra government on irrigation projects across the River Godavari is the latest tool for the TRS to pummel the already reeling Opposition parties as it prepares to win civic polls in Warangal, Khammam and Achampet. The ruling party, which is on a roll thanks to a series of victories in elections in Warangal, Narayankhed and the GHMC, is confident of sweeping these polls too.

However, TRS leaders like minister K.T. Rama Rao, who is on a whirlwind election campaign in Khammam, couldn’t resist mentioning the pending irrigation projects. Mr Rama Rao promised to bring Godavari waters to district and turn it green. In fact, all party leaders are trying to cash in on the TS- Maharashtra river deal apart from welfare and development activities already initiated and those promised for various corporations and municipalities.

“Within two years of coming to power, the government under the leadership of KCR has achieved what other governments in the undivided AP failed to do over decades like settling of inter-state river water sharing disputes,” said A.P. Jitender Reddy, TRS MP.

Pointing out that several states like Tamil Nadu-Kerala, Punjab-Haryana, Goa-Karnataka and AP-Odisha are at loggerheads over sharing of river waters, Mr Jitender Reddy said: “KCR is striving hard for the development of the state and trying to settle all outstanding disputes with our neighbours. The coming inter-state river water sharing and construction of projects agreement with Maharashtra is yet another feather in the cap of the TRS government.”

Energy minister G. Jagdish Reddy credited the CM and the TS government for the yet-to-be-signed agreement. “There will be five barrages across the Godavari. Maharashtra’s decision to sign the accord will pave way for settling of the long-pending dispute,” he said.