The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh News : YSR to lead all-party team to Delhi

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Sunday, Jul 18, 2004

Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh

YSR to lead all-party team to Delhi

By Our Special Correspondent

HYDERABAD, JULY 17. The Chief Minister, Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy, will lead an all-party delegation to Delhi to urge the Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh, for 50 tmcft of Krishna water from Karnataka.

Dr. Reddy and the team will meet the Prime Minister and request him to use his good offices to convince the Karnataka Government of the need to release 50 tmcft of water to tide over the crisis overtaking farmers in the Krishna delta area on account of three years of successive droughtand acute drinking water shortage in several parts of the State.Pressure is being mounted on the Chief Minister to solve the problem and the Telugu Desam president and Leader of the Opposition, N. Chandrababu Naidu, offered in the Assembly yesterday to join an all-party delegation to Delhi if Dr. Reddy took the initiative.

The team will seek to contrast the grim scenario in the delta with the comfortable reservoir levels in Karnataka which had been witnessing heavy rainfall in the catchment areas of Upper Krishna.

It will be brought to the notice of the Prime Minister that the water levels in Srisailam and Nagarjunasagar reservoirs do not permit any releases. On the other hand, Karnataka is in a position to liberally release 50 tmcft to Andhra Pradesh.

A Government team, led by the Minister for Major Irrigation, Ponnala Lakshmaiah, went to Bangalore recently to meet the Karnataka Chief Minister, Dharam Singh.

The team got sympathy and little else. The same was the response when the Telugu Desam Government earlier this year sent a similar team led by the then Minister for Major Irrigation, Kadiam Srihari.

The delegation will consist of the Chief Minister, the Minister for Major Irrigation, representatives of political parties and senior Government officials, according to a press release issued by the CMO.

The irrigation officials here are hopeful of releases from Karnataka shortly since both Alamatti and Narayanpur are stated to be brimming.

It is argued that once they are full, Karnataka will have no alternative but to release water.

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