Telangana blames Centre for river water-sharing dispute with Andhra Pradesh

A high-level meeting, headed by Telangana chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao, has decided to protect the rights of the state in the Godavari, Krishna rivers water-sharing come what may. There was a unanimous decision at the meeting that there was no question of losing even a single drop of water. The meeting also resolved that the state government was ready to fight for its rights to any extent.

The meeting took place on Thursday at Pragathi Bhavan in Hyderabad after the Central Water Resources ministry secretary MP Singh wrote a letter to the state government to convene the Water Resources Ministry Apex Council meeting on August 5 to resolve the water disputes between Telangana State and Andhra Pradesh. The high-level meeting was attended by Water Resources department experts and other officials.

It was expressed in the meeting that since there are other government programmes on August 5, it may cause inconvenience. Officials in the meeting suggested to the chief secretary Somesh Kumar to write a letter to the Centre to have the Apex Council meeting after August 20, after the completion of the Independence Day celebrations on August 15. 

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Several officials felt that the Centre had failed miserably in ensuring proper sharing of waters between the two newly formed states.

"It is a tradition that the Centre should ensure justice is done for both the states, but the Centre had failed. In case there are no water disputes between the two states; water sharing should be done by the Union Water Resources minister. If they are disputes, the responsibility to resolve the disputes should be entrusted to the Tribunal. The Telangana state had been requesting that, since there are water disputes between the two states, the responsibility to resolve them should be handed over to the Tribunal," stated a release from the chief minister's office.

The meeting severely condemned the way the Central Water Resources ministry turned a deaf ear to the Telangana government’s request. The meeting has unanimously resolved that projects like Palamuru-Rangareddy, Dindi Lift Irrigation Scheme, aimed at supplying irrigation water to Mahbubnagar, Rangareddy, Nalgonda districts, should be completed on priority. The meeting was of the firm view that the state should utilise its rightful share of water in Godavari and Krishna rivers and there should not be any compromise on this.

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