Congress senior leader and MLA Gade Venkat Reddy has said that water problems will be multiplied if the State was divided, as already issues were raised even before the bifurcation.
Speaking to the media at CLP office here on Monday, Gade extended his solidarity to the former minister Mandali Budha Prasad, who has taken up ‘deeksha’ demanding the State Government to release Nagarjunsagar water to save the Krishna Delta farmers. He said that Karnataka Government has constructed Almatti Balancing Reservoir and storing the additional water which could irrigate about 20 lakh acres. It is not time to discuss which Government has failed to stop the construction of Almatti Dam, he said and added that construction of Almatti Dam had taken place in 1996, and every body knows which Party was in power in the State. Due to Bachawath Tribunal Award, the State has faced injustice with regard to Krishna River Water.
Asking the State Government to release Srisailam Reservoir water so that Nagarjuna Sagar Project water could be released to Krishna Delta, simultaneously utilizing the water for power generation, Gade said that the TDP Government issued a GO and according to it, water will be released from Srisailam Reservoir to down stream only when the water level was above 834 feet in Srisailam Reservoir, but the Rajashekar Reddy Government had released another GO and according to it, water could be released from Srisailam Reservoir only when the water level was above 854 feet. It is not the time to discuss about the level of water, but it is time to release water to the down stream to help the farmers.
He said that the High Court has directed the State Government not to release water from Nagarjuna Sagar when the water level was below 510 feet, following a petition filed in the High Court by the leaders of other region. He said that his wish was all the regions people should be in good state. He said that problems were occurring before the division of the State, and the problems would be doubled if the State was divided.
The Government has to release water to the farmers keeping away the discussion about the division of the State.
Reacting to a question, Gade said that the Chief Minister was not scared of resignation threats but the pressure on him was intense. He advised the State Government to act tough against the contractors who were inefficient in completing the projects in time. “It is happening due to the defects in the system. The Government has to rectify them immediately”, he said.
Stating that he was against the EPC tender system, he said that the Irrigation Department officials were stating that the EPC system was a good one. (NSS)