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Babli project: YSR flays Maharashtra CM

Special Correspondent

Protests in Assembly; all-party team to meet PM

HYDERABAD: As work on the Godavari-based Babli project in Maharashtra reached feverish pitch leading to protests in Andhra Pradesh, Chief Minister Y. S. Rajasekhara Reddy criticised his Maharashtra counterpart Vilasrao Deshmukh on Saturday by saying "he is doing wrong".

Facing angry opposition members in the Assembly, who accused the State Government of failing to stop the project, Dr. Reddy said the Maharashtra Chief Minister had gone back on the word he gave at the meeting with him and the Union Water Resources Minister on April 4 last to put the project on hold till an amicable settlement was reached with Andhra Pradesh.

"This is against democracy," he declared, while intervening in a debate on a statement on the Babli project made by Major Irrigation Minister Ponnala Lakshmaiah. Dr. Reddy said the Maharashtra Chief Minister "is behaving in an erratic manner" unwarranted in democracy. He said his Government had tried all democratic avenues to stop the project, including a series of meetings at the level of the Central Water Commission and sending an all-party delegation to meet the Prime Minister. But, the Maharashtra Chief Minister had not cared. "When water is full in the river (when work is not possible), he says he has stopped work, only to resume work when the level falls."

Responding to a suggestion by the Opposition, Dr. Reddy said he would lead yet another all-party delegation to the Prime Minister "at the earliest" as the Maharashtra Government had failed to honour any of its commitments and resumed work in violation of the orders issued by the CWC and the Union Water Resources Ministry. The Opposition parties sought stoppage of Babli, saying it would convert Telangana into a desert by curtailing inflows into the Sriramsagar Sagar project across the Godavari.

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