Lok Satta demands PM's intervention in Babli issue

Hyderabad, Apr 11 (UNI) Lok Satta party National Coordinator Jayaprakash Narayana today demanded that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Union Minister for Water Resources Saifuddin Souz should immediately summon a meeting of the Chief Minsters of Andhra Pradesh and Maharastra to resolve the inter-state dispute over Babli project.

Talking to newspersons here, Dr Narayana said Dr Singh and Mr Souz should shed their silence on the controversial project. ''It was shameful that the Centre remained helpless even as the States squabbled over the project taken up across Godavari river'', he added.

Pointing out that the inter-state water disputes were under the purview of the States, he said the Constitutional lacuna must be immediately plugged by bringing the subject under the seventh Schedule.

Appealing to all political parties not to provoke regional and parochial feelings, Dr Narayan wanted both the State Governments to publish White Papers on the Babli dispute.

UNI