Prof. Kodandaram of TJS urges Centre to stop Polavaram-Banakacherla link

HYDERABAD

Telangana Jana Samithi (TJS) president and MLC Prof. M. Kodandaram has demanded that the Centre stop the Polavaram-Banakacherla Link Canal project taken up by Andhra Pradesh in violation of the AP Reorganisation Act and without the appraisal and approval of the river boards, Apex Council and other statutory agencies.

Speaking to newspersons here on Friday, he suggested that the Centre could go ahead with processing the appraisal of the Polavaram-Banakacherla project only after making allocation of water to the ongoing and contemplated projects of Telangana including the future needs in the Godavari Basin or else it would amount to violation of the riparian rights of Telangana.

Prof. Kodandaram said neither Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) president K. Chandrasekhar Rao nor his party leaders had any moral right to speak on the Polavaram-Banakacherla project. He also wondered by the Bharatiya Janata Party leaders from the State were keeping silent on the project that was bound to harm the interests of Telangana permanently.

Against the allocation of 518 tmcft water to it, AP was already utilising over 630 tmcft, while Telangana was not utilising even half of the 968 tmcft allocated to it in the Godavari Basin. With the Polavaram-Banakacherla project, AP was conspiring to take away over 300 tmcft of water more to the non-basin areas at the cost of basin areas in Telangana.

Meanwhile, BRS senior leader T. Harish Rao has criticised Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy for his comments on the Polavaram-Banakacherla project in Delhi on Friday. He accused the Chief Minister of coming to a tacit understanding with his AP’s counterpart and political guru N. Chandrababu Naidu to allow AP to have its way in illegally diverting the Krishna and Godavari waters to the non-basin areas. He pointed out that KCR had been demanding at least 1,950 tmcft water share in the Godavari surplus waters of over 3,000 tmcft in addition to the 968 tmcft of assured water allocated to Telangana by the Godavari Water Disputes Tribunal. Against the BRS demand of 2,918 tmcft, Mr. Revanth Reddy was conspiring to limit Telangana’s share to just about 1,000 tmc ft, he alleged.

Similarly, Mr. Revanth Reddy was talking about only 500 tmcft share in Krishna waters against 763 tmcft being demanded by KCR all along. Mr. Harish Rao sought to know the rationale behind Mr. Reddy’s silence on not demanding the Apex Council meeting on the Polavaram-Banakacherla issue.