The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh News : All-party meet on Krishna delta issue soon

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Saturday, Jul 10, 2004

Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh

All-party meet on Krishna delta issue soon

By Our Staff Reporter

HYDERABAD, JULY 9. The Chief Minister, Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy, will convene an all-party meeting soon to discuss the release of water to Krishna delta.

He gave the assurance to a delegation of MLAs, belonging to the Congress, the Telugu Desam Party, the Communist Party of India and the CPI (Marxist), representing the command area of left and right canals of Nagarjunasagar, which on Friday demanded that the water not be released to the delta.

The delegation told Dr. Reddy that water level in Nagarjunasagar reservoir must be allowed to be built up before it was released to the delta. The level now was only 410 ft while the statutory requirement for the release of water to the delta, downstream of Krishna, was 510 ft.

Ruling out release of water for irrigation, Dr. Reddy said the Government might consider it for drinking needs. The delegation impressed on Dr. Reddy that release of water for drinking water purposes might be misused for irrigation and this would send wrong signals to farmers of left and right canals.

Earlier, the Major Irrigation Minister, P. Lakshmaiah, in the Assembly said the Government treated with `utmost importance,' release of water for the delta.

Replying a question by K.P. Konda Reddy (Congress), he said the Karnataka Government had, in principle, agreed to release water from Alamatti dam. As for the operation and maintenance works on feeder channels, the Government would take a decision on whether to call short tenders or allot the works to ayacutdars.

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