Jagan's Kaleshwaram counter upsets KCR

Hyderabad: The Telangana Government seems to be upset over the sudden change in attitude of the Government of Andhra Pradesh.

While the Telangana Government has been trying to obtain national project status for its flagship project Kaleshwaram, the Andhra Pradesh Government had filed a counter in the apex court opposing it.

Taking serious note of this, Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao is learnt to have asked the officials to prepare a strong counter affidavit to be submitted in the Supreme Court.

He is also likely to convene a high-level meeting with top irrigation officials next week to review the status of the project works and legal obstacles it was facing in speedy execution of the project.

It may be mentioned that Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy and state Irrigation Minister Anil Kumar Yadav and all top AP officials witnessed the inauguration of the Kaleshwaram project in Telangana this June.

Jagan was the chief guest to the project's opening ceremony.

According to officials, the AP government informed the court that "the Telangana was going ahead with the construction of the Kaleshwaram project which was prejudicial to interest of inhabitants and farmers under the lower riparian projects of AP and hence Kaleshwaram cannot be considered for declaration as national project".

The AP government told the court that Telangana has taken up Kaleshwaram in the name of reengineering. It had also communicated to the Central Water Commission its strong objections on the considerations of Kaleshwaram project in June 2018.

The AP state also mentioned in the affidavit that "Telangana is indiscriminately constructing new projects such as Palamuru – Ranga Reddy, Dindi, Baktha Ramadasu lift scheme with a total utilisation of more than 180 tmc ft of water in Krishna basin and also projects like Kaleshwaram, Seetharama lift irrigation scheme, Thupakulagudem with an utilisation of 450 tmc ft of water which will severely affect the downstream farmers and inhabitants under the existing projects in Andhra Pradesh.

Official sources said that the AP government also raised objections on the utilisation of Godavari waters by Telangana after the bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh.

Telangana claimed it is entitled to utilise the remaining 45 tmc ft of water (after utilisation of 35 tmc ft out of 80 tmc ft proposed to be diverted from Polavaram project). The AP government argued that the TS claim was incorrect and baseless.

Sources said that KCR will discuss all the issues raised by AP government against Telangana irrigation projects and file a strong counter affidavit to claim its share of water in both Krishna and Godavari rivers. The

counter will be filed in two weeks' time.