VIJAYAWADA: Water Resources Minister P Anil Kumar has said that the State government is examining all proposals for diversion of surplus Godavari water to Krishna basin, including those proposed by Telangana, and will finalise one which puts Andhra Pradesh’s interests first. He also slammed the TDP leaders for alleging that the YSRC government failed to utilise floodwater effectively.
In a press meet at YSRC office in Tadepalli on Friday, the minister claimed that 86 per cent of all reservoirs in the State are full. “The remaining 14 per cent could not be filled because of the previous TDP government’s failure in completing necessary works, including land acquisition, rehabilitation and resettlement (LARR), of various projects.
Had they taken up the pending works in five years, we could have had over 90 per cent of water in all reservoirs,” he observed. Citing an example of how the previous dispensation made false claims, the minister said, “Of the Rs 55,000 crore works of Polavaram, about Rs 37,000 crore works are pending. Yet, the TDP claimed that 70 per cent works were done. It did not even rehabilitate 3,000 families.”To a query on Godavari-Krishna interlinking, he said that a detailed project report was under preparation and that a few other proposals were also being considered.