Naidu dictates Pawan's activities: Ministers

Amaravati: Ministers on Saturday blamed the proposed long march by Jana Sena chief Pawan Kalyan and described it as "a wrong march" for no valid reason. Irrigation Minister Anil Kumar Yadav and Agriculture Minister Kurasala Kanna Babu,at a press conference, at Tadepalli in Guntur district, said Pawan Kalyan's protest is engineered by the direction of TDP president N Chandrababu Naidu.

Ministers said the people are happy for the abundant rainfall this year. They said unlike last five years, this year the State had witnessed plenty rainfall and all the reservoirs, projects are filled with water.

"From Vamsadhara to Kundu, rivers are brimming with water. Even gates have been opened at Somasila project on Penna river after 12 years," said Ministers. Even the drought Anantapur is also witnessing floods this year, Anil Kumar said.

Anil Kumar said this situation on one side is very satisfactory for healthy rainfall, but at the same time sand scarcity is the problem caused due to floods in rivers. Due to this, the demand and sand supply are varying.

They said the government has taken measures to overcome the problem and introduced a temporary three-month sand policy to mine sand from identified reaches at rivers, lakes, and canals and also from patta lands.

He mentioned that the Srisailam dam received inflows seven to eight times and Krishna barrage gates were openedtimes and against during the past two months, they questioned the opposition how to extract sand in such a situation.

Naidu and Pawan Kalyan are happy for sand crisis that they have got a point to criticisethe government, saidKannaBabu. He said that NGT had imposed penalty of Rs 100 crore on government for illegal sand practices implemented by the previous government.

Ministers said that Pawan Kalyan is here to take up Chandrababu's agenda forward and acting under his direction from 2014.