HYDERABAD: BJP State President G Kishan Reddy has said that the BRS government is against the interlinking of the Godavari and Krishna rivers because irrigation projects have become an ATM for Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao and his family.
Addressing the ‘Rythu Sadassu” which was held by BJP at Exhibition Grounds on Saturday, he said that though there is a chance of interlinking Godavari and Krishna rivers with low project cost because of the scope of extending irrigation and drinking water mostly through gravity, the State government is not in favour of it.
He announced that after coming to power in the State and the Centre, BJP will extend a comprehensive crop insurance covering every farmer in the State. In the farmers’ conference, irrigation experts and engineers celebrated the formation of the new Krishna Water Disputes Tribunal by the Centre.
Vedire Sriram, advisor to the Union Jal Shakti Ministry said that it was due to the negligent attitude of the BRS government that more injustice was meted out to Telangana in Krishna water sharing after 2014. He hoped that the next elected government in the State will put forward its arguments adequately before the new tribunal and achieve the State’s rightful share in Krishna waters.
He said that in addition to 811 tmcft allocated by the Bachawat Tribunal to erstwhile Andhra Pradesh, 194 tmcft allocated by Brijesh Kumar Tribunal, which brings the total allocated waters to 1,005 tmcft, will have to be allocated to the two Telugu-speaking states as fresh allocations between the two states by the new tribunal within a stipulated time period of three years.