No backtracking on water issue: KCR

"There is no question of backtracking on the issue," he said instructing the officials concerned to strongly put forth the arguments on behalf of Telangana in the board meetings.

Hyderabad: Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao on Friday held a high-level review meeting at Pragathi Bhavan on the strategy to be adopted by the State government in the backdrop of the Central government fixing the jurisdiction of the Krishna, Godavari Boards through a Gazette notification.

An in-depth review of the verdicts given by the Bachawat Tribunal and Brijesh Kumar Tribunal on the rightful and legal share of allocation of waters as a right to Telangana was conducted apart from reviewing in detail various aspects in the Centre’s Gazette notification.

The meeting also discussed at length the allocation of water for both the States in the Godavari and Krishna Rivers. The Chief Minister has once again made it clear to the officials that they should work with commitment to protect the interests of agriculture in Telangana along with the interests of farmers.

“There is no question of backtracking on the issue,” he said instructing the officials concerned to strongly put forth the arguments on behalf of Telangana in the board meetings. The meeting also decided to meet again to discuss the matter on Sunday. Chief Advisor to the government Rajiv Sharma, Chief Secretary Somesh Kumar, Principal Secretary to Chief Minister, S Narsing Rao, Irrigation Special Chief Secretary Rajat Kumar, Engineer-in-Chiefs C Muralidhar and Hariram, OSD to Chief Minister, Sridhar Deshpande, former Advocate General Ramakrishna Reddy, senior advocate Ravinder Rao and others attended the meeting.