Krishna Projects: BRS beats back Congress blame game

BRS launched a determined onslaught against the Congress government for its failure to safeguard State's jurisdiction of the Nagarjuna Sagar Project and nine of the 15 outlets of joint projects in Krishna basin that were under its control so far

Hyderabad: The Bharat Rashtra Samiti (BRS) on Monday launched a determined onslaught against the government for its failure to safeguard State’s jurisdiction of the Nagarjuna Sagar Project and nine of the 15 outlets of joint projects in Krishna basin that were under its control so far. Voicing concern over the government ill-advised moves, ever since the Congress Party came to power, they pointed out that the legitimate riparian right of the State were put at stake.

Welcoming the resolution introduced in the house by the government against handing over the common projects of Telangana and AP in Krishna basin, BRS leader and former Irrigation minister T Harish Rao called it the first major victory of the BRS party. The Congress government within two months of coming to power had conceded the state’s jurisdiction of the Krishna projects as well as their outlets to the Krishna River Management Board (KRMB).

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He said that resolution was the culmination of the campaign on stepped up by the BRS against the government failure to defend its direct control over the projects and outlets. The government had taken a ‘U’ turn on its stand ahead of the public meeting at Nalgonda scheduled for February 13. The government version on Krishna water was replete with lies. The State’s riparian rights over Krishna waters were strongly defended during the BRS regime under the leadership of K Chandrashekhar Rao.

The BRS had consistently been making a strong case of the in justice meted out to State with sharing of the river water between TS and AP at 34:66 ratio. The BRS had been insisting on sharing at least on 50:50 ratio, though the State was entitled for a larger share. The State had strongly opposed the allotment of 299 tmc of Krishna water to Telangana as against 512 to Andhra Pradesh and mounted pressure for a review. The previous BRS government had made the State’s stand on the jurisdiction of the joint projects amply clear at the 16th meeting of Krishna River Management Board.

Even at the second Apex Council the State could spell out it stand and as a follow up it had written to the Ministry of Jal Shakti as many as 17 times. The Pothireddypadu head regulator was widened facilitating enhanced drawls from the Srisailam project during the Congress rule in the undivided State. The Rayalaseema Lift Irrigation project was also opposed strongly by the State during the BRS regime. The previous regime did not yield to the pressure for handing over the operational control of the joint projects. But the Congress government had given its concurrence to hand over them to the KRMB at the meeting convened by the Secretary Jal Shakti on Jan 17.

In a bid to cover up its mistakes the government was out to blame former Chief Minister and BRS chief K Chandrashekhar Rao for its ill-advised moves. BRS member Kadiam Srihari came down heavily on the Congress government for conceding the projects to KRMB and retracting on its stand in the face of strong opposition from the BRS.