Hyderabad, July 24: The all-party preparatory meet on the Babli project today decided to seek a legislation to protect the interests of lower riparian states in the wake of Maharashtra’s refusal to stop construction of Babli and other projects on the Godavari river.
Ahead of July 26 all-party leaders’ conference with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh at Delhi, Chief Minister K Rosaiah called the meet to discuss disputes over sharing of Godavari and Krishna waters with the neigbouring Maharashtra and Karnataka. The meeting decided to bring pressure on the Prime Minister to take steps to halt Babli construction by Maharashtra immediately and find a lasting solution to inter-state water disputes.
K Chiranjeevi (Praja Rajyam), G Kishan Reddy (BJP), K Narayana (CPI), J Ranga Reddy (CPM) and Pasha Qadri (MIM) took part in the deliberations.
The Telugu Desam did not participate in the meeting on the ground that the government allowed only one representative from each party. The party, however, submitted a letter with points that should be incorporated in the main memorandum.
The meeting expressed anxiety over the fate of Andhra Pradesh if the neigbouring states went ahead with construction of projects on rivers without permissions and clearances and decided to impress on the prime minister on this score. The meeting also wanted to bring to the notice of the prime minister the highhandedness of the Maharashtra police when a delegation of the TDP made an attempt to visit Babli recently.
The parties decided that they should not create strife in border areas with comments aimed at inflaming passions.
In the over two-hour meeting, representatives of various parties discussed water sharing disputes and gave their suggestions. The government has accepted to incorporate them in the memorandum to be submitted to the prime minister. Most of them wanted an act by the Centre to check the aggressiveness of the upper riparian states. They warned that such problems would come in plenty in the future.
Since the administration and judiciary failed to check the problem, only political decision could protect the interests of the state, the leaders felt.
Rebutting the TD leader’s charge, major irrigation minister P Laxmaiah said that the opportunity to meet the prime minister would not come often and there was a need to use it fully.
He said the points mooted by the TD would be incorporated in the memorandum to be submitted to the prime minister.
The minister rubbished the allegation that other parties were allowed to send two representatives to the meet.
All those who had accompanied their party representatives were asked to wait outside the chamber, he clarified.
Laxmaiah said the intention of the government was to allow those who would take part in the delegation to Delhi so that there could not be any deviations from the discussions held here and to be held at Delhi.
–Agencies