All party meet resolves to intensify stir on Babli project

Hyderabad, Apr 13 (UNI) An all-party meeting called by the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) today resolved to intensify the stir against the construction of the Babli irrigation project on river Godavari.

The meeting said the project was a violation of the agreement between the Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra governments and against the directions of the Union Government and the Central Water Commission.

TDP chief and former Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu pointed out that the barrage was constructed at a site for which the AP government had paid compensation for submergence under the Sri Ram Sagar project.

It was unheard of that a reservoir was constructed inside another dam, he said.

While under the inter-state agreement Maharashtra was to use 60 tmcft of Godavari water, it proposed to use another 60 tmcft through Babli. If that project was completed, Sri Ram Sagar would dry up and Telangana districts of Nizamabad, Karimnagar, Medak and Warangal would turn into deserts, the TDP chief said.

He asked the Andhra Pradesh government to convene an all-party meeting to discuss the steps to be taken for stopping the project work.

Mr Naidu said his party proposed to undertake a campaign in every village of the affected districts to create awareness among the people for building a mass movement against the project.

The TDP leader said each of the participating political parties could chalk out their own course of agitation and in area of consensus, all the parties could unitedly fight.

The CPI(M), CPI and CPI-ML(New Democracy) parties took part in the meeting, which was also attended by engineering experts.

Mr Naidu said he had invited the Congress, AIMIM and the BJP also for the meeting.

While the Congress and AIMIM had written to him expressing their inability to participate in the meeting, he had received no communication from the BJP.

UNI