AP, T'gana CMs to attend 1st meeting of Apex Council on Sep 21

Hyderabad, Sep 18: Chief Ministers of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana will attend the first meeting of the Apex Council formed under the AP Reorganisation Act, 2014, to discuss irrigation projects on Krishna and Godavari rivers, in New Delhi on Wednesday.

"On September 21, the Apex Council is meeting under the Chairmanship of Union Water Resources Minister Uma Bharati which will be attended by Chief Ministers of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh K Chandrasekhar Rao and N Chandrababu Naidu (respectively).

"This meeting is aimed at resolution of disputes between the two Telugu states that has arisen out of the AP Reorganisation Act," Dattatreya was quoted as saying in an official release today. After interaction with Telangana Irrigation Minister T Harish Rao, and Ministry of Water Resources Advisor Vedire Sri Ram, here, Dattatreya said the meeting of the two Chief Ministers is a welcome step and the irrigation projects in the two states have to be completed in a time-bound manner to keep the project budgets under control.

"Telangana is a backward state and the cultivation areas under projects are very less. Therefore, there is a need for doing justice to Telangana," he said.

"All these disputes could have been resolved during the combined state of Andhra Pradesh itself but it was due to (then ruling) Congress and lack of its proper approach, the disputes were not resolved," he claimed.

"Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government is interested in doing justice to the two states. Today, water dispute is a sensitive issue... But Modiji's government would act in a responsible manner to resolve the water disputes," Dattatreya said.

He also said the Telangana unit of BJP would soon meet the Prime Minister and request him to accord National project status to Kaleshwaram project.

PTI