Govt. focusing on intra-linking of rivers as immediate priority, says Chandrababu Naidu

Reiterating that water security was crucial for development of the State, Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu said the government was duly focused on intra-linking of rivers, from the Vamsadhara to the Penna, as an immediate priority as part of its micro-management strategy. 

The next thing would be the much larger project of linking the Godavari and the Krishna rivers, he said, while stressing the need for States to share river waters amicably.

He specifically said that the opposition from Telangana to the Polavaram-Nallamala Sagar project was unjustifiable as Andhra Pradesh (A.P.) intended to utilise only the flood waters that flow into the sea. He pointed out that as the lower riparian State, A.P. did not object to the Kaleshwaram project.

Making a statement during a discussion on the demand for grants to Water Resources Department in the Legislative Assembly on Thursday, Mr. Chandrababu Naidu suggested that the colossal wastage of the Godavari river water should be curbed by tapping it to the extent possible.

The Chief Minister recalled that the Task Force on Inter-Linking of Rivers that was headed by Suresh Prabhu way back in 2002 did some great work to take the ambitious project of linking the peninsular rivers but it did not make the desired progress after the Congress-led UPA took over the reins in 2004.

He asserted that the Polavaram project would be completed before the commencement of the Godavari Pushkarams in 2027.

Mr. Naidu recalled that the credit for supplying the Krishna river water to Chennai through the Telugu Ganga project goes to N.T. Rama Rao, whose vision gave shape to most of the projects being discussed now. Neither the Congress nor the YSR Congress Party had any role in the construction of those projects, he claimed.

Veligonda project

Further, Mr. Chandrababu Naidu said the government was committed to supplying water from the Veligonda Phase-I project by July and that the Pattiseema project helped in irrigating lakhs of hectares in the Krishna delta besides taking water to Rayalaseema.

A sum of ₹2,000 crore was being spent on 11 projects in the Uttarandhra region, and steps were taken to commission the Chintalapudi lift scheme at the earliest.

The Water Users’ Associations were assigned the task of managing the water resources at their disposal to contribute to water security, Mr. Naidu said, adding that the ultimate goal was to make Andhra Pradesh a drought-proof State.