AP Looting Telangana's Water: Srinivas Goud

The bitter and longstanding feud between the two Telugu states of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh over the waters of the Krishna and the Godavari rivers has cropped up again with both sides levelling allegations against the other.

Today, Telangana Tourism and Culture Minister V Srinivas Goud lambasted the AP government for allegedly "looting" Telangana's waters by constructing "illegal irrigation projects".

Talking to the media about the issue in Delhi, the minister expressed his displeasure at the YSR Congress Party regime's violation of the orders of the National Green Tribunal and the directives of the Centre on the construction of its irrigation projects.

Goud criticised erstwhile CM of undivided AP Y S Rajasekhar Reddy for not only looting water from Telangana but also of depriving the region of jobs.

"YSR deceived our region as he denied jobs to the people of Telangana. He also grabbed lands in the city of Hyderabad. The incumbent AP CM, YSR's son Y S Jaganmohan Reddy, too, is following in the footsteps of his late father who cheated and looted Telangana. However, Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao will not tolerate the deceptive tactics of the Jagan government. We are ready to fight for our state's rightful share of water. We will go to any extent to protect the rights and interests of the people of our state," he thundered.

"For Telangana, we are ready to make any sacrifice. Our people should also be ready to fight with AP. We will fight the state's attempts to steal our water since we are not ready to lose a single drop of water. Our government will not allow the Jagan regime to illegally draw water from the Krishna. We will resist such attempts at court," the leader added.

Meanwhile, two other ministers, S Niranjan Reddy and G Jagadish Reddy, also slammed the AP government for "stealing" water from Telangana.