Telangana would continuously pursue with Centre to safeguard its water rights: CM

Telangana chief minister A. Revanth Reddy on Tuesday, 1 July, said the state government would consistently pursue and "mount pressure" on the Centre to safeguard its rights in river waters, even as he alleged that the BJP is indirectly trying to revive the BRS to marginalise the Congress.

Speaking at a power-point presentation made to ruling Congress MLAs, and other leaders on the Godavari-Banakacharla river-linking proposed by neighbouring Andhra Pradesh, he said the Union Environment Ministry reportedly rejecting the pre-feasibility report (PFR) of the project submitted by the Andhra government is not a permanent solution for Telangana.

Claiming that the river-linking project hurts Telangana's share of water in the Godavari river, the Telangana government had earlier urged the Centre to reject the PFR.

"Don't think the rejection of PFR is any solution (for Telangana). It's not a full stop (to the issue), it's only a comma," Reddy said.

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Telangana's interests would be protected only when its share of water is decided and allocations of water are made, he said.

He also alleged that the Centre is not addressing the river water-sharing issues.

It was the previous BRS government and former CM K. Chandrasekhar Rao who caused the problem of Andhra proposing the river-linking project as the latter had said that 3,000 TMC of Godavari water is draining into the sea every year, he alleged.

The BRS, after losing power, is now trying to gain political mileage by alleging that the Congress government is silent on Andhra's river-linking project, Reddy said.

"We have to continuously put pressure on the Centre to ensure our rights and water allocations. That's our agenda. The BRS is a dead snake.

"The BJP has been negligent over our water allocations. The BJP is indirectly trying to revive KCR. Union Minister Kishan Reddy is playing a major role in this," he said.