Centre’s notification on irrigation projects anti-people: Niranjan

Agriculture Minister says Telangana obtaining legal opinion on water sharing issue

Hyderabad: The State government is pursuing all options and obtaining legal opinion on the Centre’s Gazette notification finalising the jurisdictions of river management boards of both Krishna and Godavari.

Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao is consulting legal experts to come up with a logical solution to the issue, Agriculture Minister S Niranjan Reddy said on Monday. He demanded that the Centre revoke the anti-people notification immediately.

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Speaking to mediapersons at his residence here on Monday, Niranjan Reddy criticised the Union government’s unilateral decision to take control over the river waters as well as its operations that is detrimental to the interests of the people of Telangana State. He said instead of supporting the State in construction of irrigation projects, the Union government wants to take over irrigation projects being constructed by the State government with much planning and difficulty. He accused the Centre of creating hurdles against development of Telangana State with a political motive.

“This is a life-and-death problem for people of Telangana whose fight for a seperate State was rooted in discrimination in river water sharing. Telangana will not accept such unilateral and unconstitutional decisions of the Central government. But if the Centre decides to force its decision on people of Telangana, the time will give a befitting answer,” he said, adding that the Union government should not play with the lives of people of Telangana.

The Minister said the so-called national parties have failed to fight for the cause of Telangana State and instead, were trying to wash of their hands by blaming the State government. He demanded the Parliament members of BJP and Congress to speak out their stand to the people of the State on the notification. He suggested that the BJP-led Union government should self-introspect over the gazzette notification.

Responding to the misleading reports over his remarks on the unemployment in the State, Niranjan Reddy said his statements were twisted and partially published on the social media in a misleading manner. He said his statement over the Telangana government procuring paddy through paddy procurement centres using Hamalis, was misleadingly linked to unemployment problem of youth. However, he offered his sincere apologies to those who got carried away by the misinformation campaign that had hurt their sentiments.

The Agriculture Minister said the Opposition parties were speaking rubbish for political gain, rather than raising issues in the public interests. He demanded to know whether the Congress and BJP MPs from the State were willing to take the responsibility and fight for filling over seven lakh job vacancies under the Union government. “The employees ratio is less than 1.5 per cent to the population of the BJP and Congress-ruled major States like Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Gujarat and Tamil Nadu. It is much higher in Telangana when compared to them and yet, the State government is regularly filling job vacancies. The unemployed youth should not fall for the poisonous propaganda of the Opposition and instead, seize the opportunities provided by the government,” he added.

The Minister along with a team of officials are scheduled to visit Delhi on Tuesday and meet the Union Minister for Chemicals and Fertilisers and others seeking release of the monthly share of fertilisers due to the State.

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