Telangana, Andhra Pradesh to discuss water sharing issue today

The top officials of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, including the chief ministers, will participate in a meeting organising to discuss the river water sharing issue. As per report, both chief ministers are expected to present their version on projects on the rivers flowing through their states. Mainly, the projects on the Krishna and Godavari rivers are the prime focus of discussion. In mid-2014, the then central government had separated Telangana from Andhra Pradesh putting an end to the decades-old struggle. Since then, both states are facing serious troubles in several issues like the capital city, water sharing, revenue, and resource mobilization. Among these issues, the water sharing is the most serious issue directly affecting the huge agrarian population of both states, who mostly depends on the agricultural sector for their livelihood. Earlier, the Telangana government alleged that the Andhra Pradesh government diverts a huge quantity of water from the Pothireddypadu head regulator. Followed by that, the Andhra Pradesh strongly countered the statement saying the Telangana government had started several illegal projects across the rivers flowing through the state. Anyway, as per the AP reorganisation act 2014, the apex council constituted by the central government should solve these issues. Now, the Union Water Resource Minister, Uma Bharti, is the chairman of the apex council organised to discuss the water sharing issue. It is learned that even if the Telangana government shoots the water diversion issue, the Andhra Pradesh government can counter the argument because the diversion project was started before 2014 so it would not have to be discussed in the apex council meeting.

Vignesh

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