Harish Rao questions delay in opposing AP proposal on Telangana irrigation projects

BRS leader T Harish Rao questioned the Telangana government’s delay in opposing Andhra Pradesh’s proposal to review permissions for seven irrigation projects ahead of the August 18 GRMB meeting. He demanded withdrawal of the agenda items and warned of protests.

Hyderabad: BRS Legislature Party deputy leader T Harish Rao on Wednesday questioned the Telangana government’s delay in opposing Andhra Pradesh’s proposal to review seven irrigation projects in the State, ahead of the Godavari River Management Board (GRMB) meeting on August 18. He was reacting to Telangana’s letter to the GRMB objecting to the inclusion of the issue in its agenda

The State government wrote the letter to the GRMB days after Irrigation Minister N Uttam Kumar Reddy said Andhra Pradesh had been raising the issue for the last 12 years and that there was nothing new in its objections.

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Reacting to the latest development, Harish Rao asked why the government had remained silent when Andhra Pradesh sought review of the permissions granted to all seven irrigation projects in the GRMB meeting agenda, despite BRS’s caution. He said the Congress government was writing letters only after being questioned by the BRS and demanded that the AP proposals be immediately withdrawn from the GRMB agenda.

The former Minister warned that Telangana should consider boycotting the GRMB meeting if the issues were not removed from the agenda. He also announced that the BRS would mobilise thousands of people to lay siege to the GRMB office at Jala Soudha, if the meeting scheduled in Hyderabad on August 18 was held without withdrawing the agenda items. “We will not tolerate any attempts by Telangana Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy and his Andhra Pradesh counterpart N Chandrababu Naidu to threaten Telangana’s water rights,” he declared.

Harish Rao emphasised the need to set aside politics and the ruling Congress take an uncompromised stand to safeguard Telangana’s water rights. He questioned Revanth Reddy’s silence on the issue against Andhra Pradesh, but instead, targeting the BRS for raising people’s issues. He said the issue concerned Telangana’s water rights and future, not politics.