Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao will write a letter to the Centre expressing his preparedness to attend the meeting of Apex Council on water disputes with Andhra Pradesh on August 25.
The letter will contain agenda items that the State government wants in the virtual meeting to be chaired by Union Water Resources Minister and with himself and his Andhra Pradesh counterpart Y.S. Jaganmohan Reddy as members.
A release later said Mr. Rao welcomed the meeting on August 25 and it will be used as a platform to clear the doubts of the Centre and AP governments. He will also raise the State's objections in utilisation of river water by the neighbouring State.
He asked officials to gather information about all the doubts raised by Centre and AP government on projects taken up in Telangana. In fact, Telangana did not take up any new projects as all of them were conceived in erstwhile Andha Pradesh. Some of them were only redesigned to meet the requirements of the new State. The same will be conveyed at the meeting with evidence.
He wanted them to go into details as when were the projects sanctioned? How much money was allotted to them? How much was actually spent by the time Telangana was formed? How much land was acquired? How much water was allocated to the projects? .
Mr. Rao expressed his resolve to present a data-based picture at the council meeting about the grounding of projects in Telangana in tune with the award of Bachawat tribunal on construction and water utilisation. He would also raise a strong objection to the expansion in the carrying capacity of the canal from Pothireddypadu head regulator and the implementation of Rayalaseema lift irrigation project by AP.
He would confront AP government on going ahead with projects even without permissions and water allocation. The AP government drew water from Krishna and Godavari rivers in violation of the award by tribunal. He wanted officials to gather documents on these aspects in support of his argument.
The objections raised by Centre and AP government on projects in Telangana were meaningless. The injustice to Telangana on river water utilisation was highlighted on several occasions in the past. The letter that he would write will seek these issues be be addressed at least this time by including them in the agenda for the meeting, he said.
