SEEKING SOLUTIONS: Tamil Nadu Governor Surjit Singh Barnala, Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy and former MP Y. Shivaji at the seminar on Water Resources Conservation' in Hyderabad on Friday. --PHOTO: P. V. SIVAKUMAR

HYDERABAD: Chief Minister Y. S. Rajasekhara Reddy has said that some of the irrigation projects were delayed because of `deliberate' court cases filed by people to stall development of the irrigation sector in the State.

"It is a peculiar situation in Andhra Pradesh, where motivated cases are filed in the courts to stop irrigation projects," Dr. Reddy said while addressing a national seminar on `Water resources conservation' organised by the Indian Peasants Forum (IPF) here on Friday.

Steep targets

"The Government has fixed steep targets and it is possible that some of the projects get delayed," he said and added that it was really unfortunate that these were the forces, which were determined to stall development. "Pulichintala and Polavaram projects are examples of such cases," Dr. Reddy said and hoped that legal hurdles would be overcome. He said 3.50 crore acres would be brought under cultivation.

Another 12-lakh acres would be brought under micro irrigation, he added.

River interlinking

Tamil Nadu Governor Surjit Singh Barnala said that management of floods and drought had to be coordinated at the national level. "Wastage of water by floods from rivers can be saved only by interlinking of rivers. Laws have to be enforced at the national level to interlink rivers," he remarked.

Consensus

Mr. Singh said a consensus had to be evolved among the States on interlinking of rivers. He referred to the Cauvery water dispute and said it was very old issue but some States were not willing to accept the verdict of the Tribunal.

Convener of IPF G. Chinna Reddy, former MP Y. Shivaji and World Bank consultant T. Hanumantha Rao spoke.

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