HYDERABAD: Hardening his stand against Andhra Pradesh on sharing of river waters, Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao on Thursday said he is ready to fight even with God to protect the interests of Telangana’s farmers and the agricultural sector.
During a review meeting with officials at Pragathi Bhavan, KCR decided on the strategy to be adopted for the Apex Council meeting scheduled for October 6, to drive a hard bargain with AP. Jal Shakti Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat will convene the Apex Council meeting through video-conference.
“I am ready to fight even with God,” the Chief Minister, who has decided to build a watertight argument against AP’s claims on the sharing of Krishna and Godavari river waters, said. He also wants to expose the Centre’s “passive” attitude towards resolving the issues between the sibling States.
KCR recalled that the Telangana Statehood movement primarily focused on the rightful share of river waters. “There is a festive atmosphere in Telangana’s farming sector now. The State stood first in agricultural production after it was carved out of Andhra Pradesh. Its farmers have become a role model for the country and the State has turned into a rice bowl. We are using the rivers’ waters to make barren land fertile. We will use every drop of our rightful share in the Krishna and Godavari. The arguments to be presented in the Apex Council meeting will focus on our rights,” he asserted.
Meanwhile, the Chief Minister directed the officials to prepare effective arguments to be presented at the Apex Council meeting. Irrigation Principal Secretary Rajat Kumar, State Planning Board Vice-Chairman B Vinod Kumar, Chief Advisor to Government Rajiv Sharma, Irrigation Advisor SK Joshi, OSD to CM Sridhar Rao Deshpande, and Engineers-in-Chief C Muralidhar Rao, B Hari Ram and B Nagender Rao, among other officials, attended the meeting.