Mah asks AP Minister to postpone visit to inspect Babli project

Hyderabad, Apr 5 (UNI) The Andhra Pradesh Government has taken serious note of the communication sent by Maharashtra asking Major Irrigation Minister Ponnala Lakshmaiah to postpone his visit scheduled for today, for a joint inspection of the Babli project across river Godavari along with his counterpart from the state.

Earlier, Chief Minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy wrote to his Maharashtra counterpart Vilasrao Desmukh and obtained permission for the visit of Mr Lakshmaiah to the project site for a joint inspection.

Following the fresh communication from Maharashtra, Dr Reddy today held a high-level meeting with the Irrigation Minister and other top officials.

According to official sources, the meeting felt that Maharashtra had asked the Minister to postpone his visit only to stop the AP Government from finding that the project was being constructed against rules and the federal spirit.

The meeting also felt that Maharashtra was afraid that it would be exposed after it had disregarded the directions of the Centre and violated its own promises.

Official sources said the meeting was of the opinion that Maharashtra wanted to gain time to hasten the completion of the project through the postponement of the AP Minister's visit.

The sources explained that due to efforts of AP Govt's lawyers, the Supreme Court had agreed to advance the examination of the case by three weeks and fixed April 25 as the next date for hearing.

The meeting felt that the message received from the Maharashtra Government asking AP Minister to postpone his visit would strengthen the arguements of the state government before the Centre and the Supreme Court and expose the designs of that government.

UNI