Vijayamma calls for a united fight

Pulichinthala (Guntur district), Dec 4, 2013 : Rushing through the procedures to announce the separate
State on December 9 as birthday gift to Sonia Gandhi though 75 % of the people
are against the division.

“The verdict has come ahead of the probable
announcement as the Centre does not want the litigation to be pending before it
moves ahead with the division of the State, but this gross injustice of
division as well as the Tribunal verdict cannot be accepted and we have to
fight them out,” she told addressing the gathering at the project site here on
Wednesday.

The Tribunal verdict is against the state interests
and the upper riparian states have already exploited the water resource sensing
the disunity among the people of Andhra Pradesh. It is time to put up a united
fight and safeguard the state for the coming generations, she said.

Bachawat has allocated 811 TMC of water to our
state and it was under-utilised by TDP President N Chandrababu Naidu while he
was chief minister. He neither built a new project nor completed the ones
started by NTR. He had cancelled tenders of some of the projects.

“Today he is holding a dharna against the Brijesh
Kumar Tribunal verdict and on what moral grounds he is undertaking this
exercise but for trying to gain political mileage.

If we do not get our share of water we cannot go
ahead with the projects on
Krishna River including
Handri-Neva, Nettampadu, Kalwakurthy, Bhima and others.

Pulichinthala, being the first project launched by
YSR, which is aimed at providing water to Guntur,
Krishna, Prakasam, twin
Godavari and Nalgonda
districts. Though 80 % of the work was completed by YSR, after him there was
neglect and just before the elections, Chief Minister is coming on December 7
to inaugurate the project.

“Compensation was not fully paid to the displaced
persons and the construction of crest gates was not yet completed but he Chief
Minister is in a hurry to inaugurate the project. He should complete all the
pending works including paying of compensation if he is sincere in helping the
farmers,” she said.

Chandrababu Niadu has discouraged YSR for taking up
Pulichinthala and said such a project is not viable, but YSR has gone ahead
with the project which is aimed at irrigating 13 lakh acres under the delta
besides power generation.

YSR has treated all the three regions equally and
had he been alive Polavaram and Pranahitha-Chevella would have seen the light
of the day, she said.

While Naidu’s term was against the interests of
farmer, YSR term was pro-farmer. Naidu has allocated Rs 312 crores for
agriculture and YSR has earmarked Rs 1,700 crores in the budget. His
Jalayaganam was aimed at irrigating 1 crore acres in all the three regions.

Naidu, without taking back the letter he has given
in favour of the division of the state cannot be sitting on dharna in this
region, she said. He was asking for equal justice to both regions and the
Congress seems to be impressed by his advocacy and has brought to the fore
Rayal Telangana to equally divide the seats in both states.

Naidu has been helping Congress at all times and
the Congress is playing divisive politics for the sake of votes and seats.

The division should take place only after getting
two-third majority in the assembly and is ratified by both house of the
parliament by a similar margin. But the Centre is misusing article 3 without
showing respect to the sentiments of the local people. We have to fight on the
issues of water and division of state.

YS Jagan Mohan Reddy is visiting all states to
garner support for the cause of united state and in the coming elections, if he
is encouraged with a mandate, the state will be united and we will get the
rightful share, she said.

The dharna will continue at Gandikota project in
Kadapa district tomorrow and at Jurala in Mahbubnagar the day after.