‘Ready to fight even with God’: KCR on river water dispute with Andhra

Telangana chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao on Thursday decided to confront the Centre for its failure to resolve the river water disputes between Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, even after six years of bifurcation of the combined state.

“When it comes to protecting the interests of farmers in the state, I am ready to fight even with God. We shall ensure that Telangana would get its rightful share of every drop of water in Godavari and Krishna rivers,” the chief minister said.

At a high-level meeting of the irrigation department in Pragati Bhavan, KCR finalised the strategy to be adopted by the state government at the apex council meeting convened by Union Jal Sakthi minister Gajendra Singh Shekawat on October 6.

Andhra Pradesh chief minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy would present his state’s arguments at the meeting called to discuss the disputes between the two Telugu states on river water sharing.

Asking the officials to put forth powerful arguments supported by all the required data before the apex council meeting, KCR said he would expose the Centre’s inaction in resolving the inter-state water disputes.

“Under the AP Reorganisation Act, Telangana should be allocated its water share in the rivers. We wrote a letter to the Prime Minister on June 14, 2014 within two weeks of the formation of Telangana, requesting him to take up water allocation to the state. We had asked for the constitution of a special tribunal under Section (3) of the Inter State River Water Disputes Act 1956 or through the existing tribunal,” he pointed out.

The chief minister regretted that even after six years, there was no response for the letter written to the PM. “The Centre is trying to give an impression that it is settling the disputes by calling for apex council meetings. In reality, the Centre is not doing anything,” he said.

Stating that he would take the Centre to task at the apex council meeting on October 6, KCR said “there should be absolute clarity on the allocation of water to Telangana.”

The chief minister also vowed to give a befitting reply to Andhra Pradesh which, he said, was intentionally creating disputes on the river water sharing. “We shall put forth our arguments so strongly that the AP government will not raise the issues again in future. We shall reject the attempts made to undermine the rights of Telangana people,” KCR said.