VIJAYAWADA: Congress leaders of the Krishna delta are ready to lay down their lives in the fight for water and irrigation projects for the region, according to the Kankipadu MLA, Devineni Rajasekhar (Nehru). He told newspersons at the Andhra Ratna Bhavan here on Friday that there would be no compromise in the fight for water to the delta and the Pulichintala project. "It is our right and we will fight for it and are ready to lay down our lives in the struggle. We will quit from our posts and fight," he said.

When newsmen asked him to respond to the agreement between the Chief Minister, Y.S.Rajasekhara Reddy, and Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) on Pulichintala, Mr. Rajasekhar said that the Congress MLAs had left the resolution of the Telangana problem to their party leader, Sonia Gandhi, but when it came to water for Krishna delta they would fight. "If we feel that injustice is being done to the Krishna delta, we will go and make a representation to Ms. Gandhi," he said.

MLAs aware

He said that the delta MLAs, Gade Venkata Reddy and Mandali Buddha Prasad, had gone to New Delhi with the express purpose of arguing the case of the Krishna delta in the event of the TRS making any unfair demands (at the meeting with the Chief Minister). This was, however, not necessitated because the Chief Minister himself spoke for the Krishna delta. He said that Dr. Reddy was the only Chief Minister who spoke for release of water to the Krishna delta and construction of Pulichintala project "14 times in the 14 months ever since the Congress party came to power."

The Vijayawada MP, Lagadapati Rajagopal, said the agreement on Pulichintala was being grossly misunderstood. The Chief Minister agreed to shift the Pulichintala dam site only if a "better alternative" was shown in place of the existing project.

Work to go on

The MP cited an instance in which, he, along with some others, went to the Chief Minister to request him for a change in the design of the Polavaram canal that benefited only delta farmers. Recalling that even on that occasion the Chief Minister said the design of the canal would be changed only if there was a "better alternative," Mr. Rajagopal said work on the Pulichintala project would not be stopped and would continue. If the TRS came up with a better alternative, a second dam could be constructed there, he said.

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