Hyderabad, April 30: After the
overwhelming response to the Save Democracy dharna at Delhi, YS Jagan Mohan
Reddy would sit on a three-day hunger strike on May 16, 17 and 18 at
Kurnool with the slogan Save Krishna delta in protest against the faulty
irrigation policy of Chandrababu Naidu, the river waters being usurped by
neighbouring states while the State government has been focusing only on the
welfare of the contractors and has been maintaining stoic silence on the
injustice.
Chandrababu Naidu has been silent and
is scared of questioning Telangana government which is drawing away water from
Mahbubnagar severely curtailing the inflow of water in to the state in wake of
his involvement of cash for vote case while he has been liberal to contractors
on irrigation projects which yield little or no benefit to the parched state,’
he told reporters here on Saturday.
While Telangana government is going
ahead with Palamuru-Rangareddy and Dindi projects by lift irrigation drawing
away more than 115 TMC and curtailing the Krishna waters which will severely
affect the irrigation sector of the State, Chandrababu Naidu has no voice to
question the injustice as he is deeply involved in the cash for vote case and
is scared of broaching the issue.
On the other hand, he has been very
liberal to contractors, even blacklisted ones, who have undertaken works on the
Pattiseema, which is a parallel to Polavaram, despite having no storage
capacity and has been deeply involved in the scam which is laden with
kickbacks.
The works have been given at inflated
rates despite no proportionate increase in raw materials, including cement,
steel, petrol and diesel, he said.
Pattiseema will put us on a sticky
wicket and attracts some of the provision of the Godavari Water Disputes
Tribunal to our disadvantage.
As the ruling party has proved its
inefficiency in not raising the issue of public importance pertaining to the
core irrigation sector, we have decided to launch a three day protest programme
and I will sit on a hunger strike at Kurnool, demanding the due waters for
Andhra Pradesh and the intervention of Centre in the issue and set up Krishna
and Godavari Water Boards for settling inter-state disputes, he said.
We have to save the Krishna delta, which
includes Khammam and Nalgonda, by ensuring that proper and due share of waters
flow into our state without any interruptions as the state is reeling under
severe drought and being the tail end state will be at a disadvantageous
position if no proper action is taken immediately.
The three-day dharna is aimed at
drawing the attention of Prime Minister Narender Modi and Chief Ministers
of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh towards the injustice being done in water
sharing, to save the ayacut of Krishna and Godavari and to highlight the
failures of Chandrababu Naidu in mitigating the acute drought situation in the
state.
If water is diverted at Mahbubngar,
Srisailam and Nagarjuna sagar will not get water which will badly affect the
Krishna delta, he said.
Chandrababu Naidu’s focus has been on
favouring the contractors by accepting their excess quotes and allowing them to
give works to sub-contractors on nomination basis as commercialization of
governance has been Chandrababu Naidu’s priority and not providing irrigation
and drinking water to the region.
Chandrababu’s indifference towards the
state issues has come into the open when the minister told the Parliament that
special status to Andhra Pradesh could not be possible. The statement comes out
of the attitude of Chandrababu Naidu who has been watering down the core
promise during the division of the State to compensate the loss incurred by the
State.
Narender Modi who shared the dais with
Chandrababu Naidu and Venkaiah Naidu during electioneering had said that the
special status term should be increased from five to ten years and Chandrababu
Naidu had even went on record that it should be further increased to 15 years.
The same Chandrababu Naidu has been
talking in a different voice now belittling special status which gave the
Centre much room to speak against the special status. If the state gets special
status, there would be many incentives and exemptions which will enable the
state to grow fast industrially but the state and Central governments are
ignoring the issue, he said.
A Peep Into CM Jagan’s Heart Of Gold!
