HYDERABAD: The Telangana High Court (HC) on Monday refused to adjudicate a petition pertaining to the Rayalseema Light Irrigation Scheme (RLIS), stating that it’s an interstate dispute. The HC directed the petitioners to approach the Supreme Court. A bench comprising Chief Justice Raghvendra Singh Chauhan and Justice B Vijaysen Reddy adjourned the petitions to Tuesday. The bench is dealing with petitions filed separately by Congress leader Ch Vamsi Chand Reddy and social activist G Srinivas and four others.
The petitioners challenged the AP government’s decision to go ahead with the RLIS project without obtaining prior permissions from the departments concerned. Petitioners’ counsels K Sravan Kumar and NS Arjun Kumar told the court that the RLIS poses a serious threat to the riparian rights of the farmers of Telangana. The AP government’s decision to invite tenders for taking up RLIS is in violation of Section 84 of the AP Reorganization Act, 2014, they argued.
After hearing the case, the bench pointed out that the subject issue pertains to an inter-state water dispute and suggested the counsels to move the SC. When advocate Sravan Kumar said that he would get instructions from his clients on approaching the SC and maintainability of inter-state water dispute in the high court, the bench posted the matter to Tuesday