Mumbai, July 18: Terming the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) chief and former Andhra Pradesh chief minister Chandrababu Naidu’s protest in Maharashtra’s border area as “politically motivated,” home minster RR Patil on Saturday announced that Naidu and his supporters will be sent to various jails across the state if they do not comply with the court order and go back to their state.
“The court gave Naidu and his supporters bail against a personal bond. But they refused this bail. We have kept Naidu and his MPs and MLAs in a school with all possible amenities. Despite that, they have complained of inconvenience and violation of human rights. To offer them the facilities they demand, we will have to move them out to various jails across the state where we could provide them more facilities,” he said.
Police have refused to allow Naidu and other leaders to visit the Babhli dam being built by Maharashtra across Godavari River. Andhra’s main opposition party has alleged that the dam was being constructed illegally and it would deprive Andhra of its rightful share of waters. Naidu and others, who were arrested Friday for trying to enter Maharashtra despite ban orders, refused to take bail. They made it clear they would not leave Maharashtra till they were allowed to inspect the dam.
MV Mysoora Reddy, a senior TDP leader and Rajya Sabha MP said, “Our intention was to bring to light the irregularities by Maharashtra. The project is contrary to the Godavari tribunal award. The Babhli project will cause a reverse flow of about 60 TMC of water from the Sri Ram Sagar Project (SRSP) in Andhra Pradesh. There are multiple deviations in the project design. What the Maharashtra government has done is completely unethical, uncalled for and mischievous.”
Patil, on the other hand, has claimed discrimination by the central tribunal in its apportioning of the water from the Godavari and Krishna basins, and said that the government was considering challenging the decision. The arrested leaders spent Friday night at the ITI. The TDP leaders said Naidu and others slept on mats.
They alleged that they have not been provided basic facilities and announced that they will lodge a complaint with the National Human Rights Commission against the Maharashtra government.
Patil said that the by-polls in the Telangana has motivated Naidu to launch the dramatic protest. “He never visited the project when he was the chief minister, nor did he move the courts for justice.
He now wants to gain political mileage from this entire issue.” Meanwhile, tension prevailed in Dharmabad town of Nanded district as a group staged a protest against Naidu and his party colleagues. Police baton-charged the protesters and arrested them as they tried to enter the ITI premises raising slogans against the Andhra leaders.
–Agencies–