TDP leaders meet President and PM over Babli

New Delhi, May 15 (UNI) A Telugu Desam Party delegation today met President A P J Abdul Kalam and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to complaint about the dangers posed by Babli project which had the potential of siphoning off 65 tmc of live storage of Srirama Sagar Project (SSP).

The delegation led by TDP leader and former Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu told the two leaders that due to the Babli project, on the upper reaches of SSP there was every possibility the inflow into the SSP would be reduced affecting Kharif and Rabi crops causing enormous losses to seven backward districts of water parched Telangana region.

The construction, they said, had started in January 2005 and it was a serious violation of Godavari Water Disputes Tribunal Award by Government of Maharashtra.

They told the President and the Prime Minister that Andhra Pradesh was planning to irrigate 18 lakh acres in seven districts of Nizamabad, Adilabad, Karimnagar, Warrangal, Nalgonda and Khammam districts and the Babli project would leave no water for cultivation or even for drinking.

The people of Andhra Pradesh, the TDP leaders said, were agitated about the upstream project as the instructions of the Central Water Commission had not been honoured by the Maharashtra Government. The Minister and people's representatives from Andhra Pradesh were denied permission to visit the place.

They said the Centre was duty bound to stop violation of Inter-State agreements and the issue would disturb the relations between two states.

The Prime Minister on his part had advised the TDP not to politicise the issue and has favoured treating rivers as national asset and distribute equitably among the riparian states.

The TDP leaders calling on the two leaders comes after a train load of TDP activists and farmers held a rally at Jantar Mantar here yesterday.

UNI