Andhra Pradesh BJP general secretary S Vishnuvardhan Reddy today slammed Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao for the latter's comments on the bitter and longstanding feud between the two Telugu states over the waters of the Krishna and the Godavari rivers.
Reacting to media reports that KCR had stated that he would "clash" with AP for the sake of Telangana's "rightful share of the river waters", Reddy fumed that it was "shameful" that the CM had said that he was ready to be unjust to the people of the Rayalaseema region of AP, and that it was irresponsible of the Telangana government to decide to stop water to Rayalaseema's farmers.
Referring to a slogan KCR would use during the Telangana agitation that urged the Telugu people to "stay together like siblings even after the geographical division of undivided Andhra Pradesh", the BJP leader asked him if this is the togetherness and unity he had been referring to. Claiming that AP had lost thousands of acres of land for the Srisailam Dam constructed across the Krishna River in Kurnool, he declared that the state had continued to "give water" to Telangana even after losing large tracts of land.
Reddy then attacked AP CM Y S Jaganmohan Reddy and asked the latter why he had not responded to the statement of the Telangana government, and thundered, "AP CM Jagan Garu, why are you not responding to the comments of the Telangana Cabinet? Are you sacrificing the interests of AP for the sake of maintaining the relations between yourself and the TRS? If KCR is alleging that AP's projects are illegal, why don't you talk about the illegality of projects undertaken in Telangana? If Rayalaseema is illegal, are all of Telangana's projects legal?"
He also questioned the MPs and MLAs of Rayalaseema over their alleged silence in the matter and queried if they too were ready to sacrifice the interests of the people of the region to protect their business interests in the neighbouring state.
The acrimonious water feud between AP and Telangana has been an issue for years now. As the feud between them rages on, some months ago they had both sought the Centre's intervention in the matter. This had prompted union Jal Shakti Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat to instruct the CMs of the two states to
submit Detailed Project Reports (DPRs) of their respective states' new irrigation projects for the sanctioning of the same.
While this could have been an important step in resolving the dispute, it does not seem to have had much of an impact on lessening the chasm between the two states.