The Union Ministry of Water Resources has sent an invitation to Chief Ministers of both the Telugu states to discuss water issues in the Telugu states on Wednesday. It has asked the two Chief Ministers – Chandrababu Naidu and Revanth Reddy to inform whether they will be able to attend the meeting to be held at the Shramshakti Bhawan in Delhi at 2:30 pm on Wednesday.
AP Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu is reaching Delhi on Tuesday and Telangana CM Revanth Reddy is also reaching on Wednesday. It has also suggested that the agenda details of the water issues to be discussed should be sent to their ministry in advance.
Chief Minister Chandrababu met Union Minister of Water Resources CR Patil in Delhi on February 20 this year. Deputy CM Pawan Kalyan also participated in this meeting. They explained the proposals for the Polavaram-Banakacharla Link Project to CR Patil, seeking reimbursement of the cost incurred for the construction of the Polavaram left and right canals and providing necessary assistance to complete the Polavaram project on a war footing.
They discussed the establishment of a link canal to send 200 TMC of flood water from Polavaram in Godavari to Banakacharla through this project. They explained that if this project is completed, AP will become drought-free and will provide drinking water to 80 lakh people.
Chandrababu said that a new ayacut of 3 lakh hectares will be created and ayacut stabilization will be done for 9.14 lakh hectares. He also said that 20 TMC of water will be provided to industries.
After that, some leaders from Telangana state have been expressing objections regarding the Polavaram-Banakacharla linkage project. CM Chandrababu advised ministers and leaders in a recent cabinet meeting to clear Telangana’s doubts about this project. He said that flood waters are being used through the Polavaram-Banachakarla project.
He made it clear that Telangana will not suffer any loss through this project. He recalled that despite many projects being undertaken in Telangana without permission, no objection was raised, and deplored that some people in Telangana are raising objections to the Polavaram-Banachakarla linkage project for political reasons.
The Telangana CM also said that he would hold talks with AP regarding the Banachkarla linkage project, and the meeting to be held at the Union Water Resources Minister has assumed great importance. There is a possibility of discussion on the water shares of the two states.
Along with the Polavaram-Banachakarla issues, there is a possibility of discussion on the Krishna and Godavari Board. Apart from this, the Union Water Resources Ministry is likely to take up the issues that the two states put on the agenda for discussion on a priority basis.