Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao on Friday found fault with the Centre for trying to take control of the state’s irrigation projects.

He told the Assembly that this is an issue of the state’s self-respect and he has requested the Centre to postpone implementation of the gazette notification in this regard and was waiting for its response.

He said if the Centre went ahead with the implementation of the notification from October 16, he would take an all-party delegation to New Delhi.

The Chief Minister accepted a suggestion of Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (MIM) leader Akbaruddin Owaisi that an all-party delegation meet the Prime Minister on the issue.

KCR, as the Chief Minister is popularly known, said he raised the issue during his meetings with the Prime Minister, the Home Minister and the Jal Shakti Minister last month and claimed that they all gave an assurance that the notification will not come into effect.

“They plan to implement it from October 16. I requested them to better postpone it. They have given the assurance. Let us see what happens,” he said.

KCR said neighbouring Andhra Pradesh created some problems over sharing of river waters which led to the Centre issuing the notification.

The Union Jal Shakti Ministry on July 15 issued the notification to take over all the completed and ongoing major and medium irrigation projects on Krishna and Godavari rivers in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh.

The ministry last month stepped up efforts to implement the notification. A meeting was held with the Chairmen of the Krishna River Management Board (KRMB) and the Godavari River Management Board (GRMB) to finalise the modalities. The ministry appointed two chief engineers each for two boards to oversee the implementation of the gazette notification.