Harish Takes Credit For Congress Government Refusal To Hand Over Irrigation Projects
Hyderabad: BRS senior leader T. Harish Rao on Monday said that the government’s resolution against the handing over of irrigation projects on the Krishna to the KRMB (Krishna River Management Board) was passed against the backdrop of his party’s meeting in Nalgonda on Tuesday.
Harish Rao advised the government to work harder for getting a better share of waters for the state through the Krishna River Water Tribunal (KRWT), which was formed last year.
Participating in a discussion on the government resolution denying the handover of Nagarjunasagar and Srisailam dams to the KRMB in the Assembly on Monday, Harish Rao said, “The engineers-in-chief (ENC) of both Telangana state and Andhra Pradesh have accepted that the operational control of the projects will be with the KRMB. It was further agreed that an action plan will be made in seven days and handover completed in a month. The protocols for handing over the dams and all 15 prioritised components/outlets of the dams will be transferred to the KRMB.”
He stated that the irrigation projects would be manned by staff from both states in equal proportion but they will report to KRMB.
Charging the government with trying to apportion blame on the Telangana state ENC, Harish Rao said, “The attempt by minister Uttam Kumar Reddy to wash his hands off the muck on the issue of the transfer of projects is wrong as agreements are always signed by officials. The letter written by the then irrigation secretary Smita Sabharwal had mentioned the handover will be done after the operational protocol of dams is finalised.”
The government had stated that the official had signed off on the letter handing over the projects in the last days of the BRS government.
With regard to the allegation that the BRS government had settled for a smaller share of Krishna waters, Harish Rao explained: “We challenged the water sharing formula of 299:512 (tmc ft) between Telangana and AP by writing around 35 to 40 letters and sought water sharing on a 50:50 basis. After the Centre failed to respond, we filed a case in the Supreme Court which was withdrawn after assurances that a tribunal will be constituted by Union minister Gajendra Shekhawat.”
Former chief minister K. Chandrashekhar Rao and the BRS had fought against the increase in water drawing capacity through the Pothireddypadu scheme to Rayalaseema and got a stay on the Rayalaseema lift irrigation scheme by filing cases in the National Green Tribunal and other fora, he added.