APCC state spokesperson Dr N. Tulasi Reddy has cautioned Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu that he should not fall into the Telangana trap in the upcoming meeting under the auspices of Union Water Resources Minister CR Patil in Delhi on the Banakacharla project.
He said that there is a lot of surplus water in Godavari, and Chandrababu’s suggestion to the Telangana government that we should use some of it and you should use some is a lack of understanding. He said that this will cause serious losses to the downstream state of Andhra Pradesh in the future.
The former MP said that based on 75 percent reliability, there will be 3,000 TMC of net water in the Godavari river. He said that the Bachawat Tribunal has come to a conclusion with 889 TMCs have been allocated to Maharashtra, 20 TMCs to Karnataka, 625 TMCs to Chhattisgarh, 293 TMCs to Orissa, and 1480 TMCs including regenerated water have been allocated to the united Andhra Pradesh.
He said that out of the 1480 TMCs allocated to the united Andhra Pradesh, 710 TMCs have been allocated to Telangana projects and 770 TMCs to AP projects. He said that the Telangana projects include Singur, Nizam Sagar, Sriram Sagar, Kadem, Midmanar, Yellampalli, Sundella, Annaram, Thummidihat, Kaleshwaram, Tupakula Gudem, Sitarama, and Ichchampally projects.
Dr Tulasi Reddy said that the AP projects include Polavaram, Godavari Delta, Kovvada Canal, Chagalanadu, Ramavaram, Bhupathipalem, Seethapalli and other schemes. He said that some Telangana projects being built based on net water and the Polavaram project in AP are not completed, so that water is flowing into the sea.
Therefore, he cautioned that there is a perception that there is a lot of surplus water in Godavari. He warned that if all these projects are completed, there will not be much surplus water in Godavari. He made it clear that only the lower state of Andhra Pradesh will have the freedom to use the surplus water.
He said that the upper states of Telangana, Orissa, Chhattisgarh, Karnataka and Maharashtra will not have the freedom to use the surplus water. Therefore, he cautioned that Chandrababu Naidu’s statement that Telangana can build projects based on surplus water will cause irreparable damage to Andhra Pradesh.
Moreover, Dr Tulasi Reddy fears that Polavaram-Banakacherla is an unfeasible project and this will become a stumbling block for Andhra Pradesh. Therefore, he suggested that this proposal should be withdrawn.
