No need for Sonia's intervention in Babli issue: Minister

Hyderabad, Apr 2 (UNI) Alleging the opposition was politicising even issues that concerned Andhra Pradesh interests, state Major Irrigation Minister P Lakshmaiah today maintained there was no need for Congress president Sonia Gandhi to intervene in the Babli project issue.

Addressing a press meet here, he said the state government had moved the Supreme Court on the issue, which would hear the state's interim petition this week, seeking a direction to halt the project.

It was unfortunate that former chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu, who had failed to file even a review petition in the apex court to restrict Karnataka from increasing the height of Almatti dam from 512 ft to 519 ft when the TDP was in power, was now 'politicising' the issue by demanding an instant reply from Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on the sensitive issue and targeting Ms Sonia Gandhi.

All parties in other states remained united in protecting their State's interests, unlike Andhra Pradesh, he said.

Denying the opposition charge that the state government had not engaged competent lawyers to argue the case, he said Mr Naidu did not even construct a project across River Palar to provide drinking water to his own home constituency of Kuppam.

It was the Congress government that convinced the lower riparian state of Tamil Nadu and prepared the ground for the drinking water project for the drought-prone Chittoor district.

On Union Water Resources Minister Saifuddin Soz's statement that the Centre was unable to intervene as Andhra Pradesh had taken resort to legal course, he said the state government was left with no option but to move the court after Maharashtra failed to implement directions from the Centre to halt the project as many as five times.

Maharashtra had agreed before the Central Water Commission that the project would not be taken up in the submerging area of the Sriramsagar project in Andhra Pradesh without prior consent from Andhra Pradesh.

On Congress MP Madhu Yaskhi Goud finding fault with the state government for inadequate steps to stop the project, he said he would meet with the MP concerned to clear ''misapprehensions''.

On Maharashtra's claim that Babli was only a drinking water project to augument 0.17 tmc water, he maintained it would enable the upper riparian state to utilise 5.4 tmc water. The project had been taken up, allegedly in gross violation of the 1975 agreement between the two states.

UNI