The Hindu : Front Page : Chief Ministers' meet over Babli today

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Apr 04, 2006

Front Page

Front Page

Chief Ministers' meet over Babli today

Special Correspondent

HYDERABAD: Expectations are high of a breakthrough in the row over the Babli project across the Godavari when the Chief Ministers of Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra meet in New Delhi on Tuesday.

The meeting, convened by Union Minister for Water Resources Saifuddin Soz at the instance of the Prime Minister, is held while the work on the project is in progress. Maharashtra re-launched the work recently when the backwaters of the Sriramsagar project receded.

A solution is likely because of three reasons-- reported instructions by the Prime Minister to resolve the issue, the recent Supreme Court direction to Maharashtra to reply to the petition filed by Nizamabad MP Madhu Yashki Goud and the notices served on Maharashtra by the Union Water Resources Ministry not to continue Babli work.

The case of Andhra Pradesh team is that an agreement reached between the two States in 1974 provided for construction of Sriramsagar project with its reservoir extending till Babli. Therefore, the Babli project is an encroachment into Sriramsagar's foreshore area which was acquired by Andhra Pradesh after paying due compensation. Moreover, Maharashtra has already exhausted its share out of the sub-basin of the Godavari.

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