Andhra Pradesh Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) general secretary V. Vishnu Vardhan Reddy on Monday lashed out at Prakasam district Telugu Desam Party (TDP) MLAs and called their letter to chief minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy an act opposing Rayalaseema and furthering the alleged fake propaganda of Telangana.
“TDP MLAs from Prakasam district have written the letter furthering the fake propaganda of Telangana and in opposition to Rayalaseema,” said Reddy.
He was referring to the letter written by Addani MLA Gottipati Ravi Kumar, Kondapi MLA Dola Bala Veeranjaneya Swamy and Parchur MLA Elurui Sambasiva Rao.
The trio said they were writing the letter on behalf of Prakasam district farmers and people and claimed that both Telangana and Rayalaseema lift irrigation projects at Srisailam are detrimental to Prakasam district.
However, the BJP leader said that a letter like this at the moment is a shameful act and lashed out at Telangana for acting in a way which is dangerous to Andhra Pradesh.
Training his guns at the Andhra government, Reddy alleged that the government is not acting against Telangana to safeguard its business and political prospects.
“We will join the masses and start a movement for water resources,” he said, questioning if there was a water resources department in the state.
Andhra Pradesh and Telangana are engaged in a bitter war of words over water projects in either states with both terming them as illegal. Already, Andhra CM Jagan Mohan Reddy has written several letters to the Centre on the issue and has complained against Telangana.
He complained that Telangana’s unilateral siphoning of water from Srisailam, Nagarjuna Sagar and Pulichintala reservoirs will jeopardise the drinking and irrigation needs of Rayalaseema, Nellore and Prakasam districts, including Chennai city’s drinking water requirements.
Jagan Mohan Reddy said Telangana continues to blatantly violate the provisions of the APR Act, 2014, acting in a whimsical manner with utter disregard to the operational protocols and directions of Krishna River Management Board.
Though power generation is incidental to irrigation needs, he complained that Telangana has started utilising Srisailam reservoir waters for power generation from the very first day of the water year which started on June 1, well below the minimum draw down level (MDDL) of 834+ ft.
