Saturday, Jun 21, 2003
Saturday, Jun 21, 2003 |
| Southern States | ||||
|
News:
Front Page |
National |
Southern States |
Other States |
International |
Opinion |
Business |
Sport |
Miscellaneous |
Advts: Classifieds | Employment | Obituary | Southern States
-
Andhra Pradesh
By Our Special Correspondent
Ms. Gandhi has suggested that the delegation meet the Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha, Manmohan Singh, as she would be pre-occupied with other engagements. This offer has been declined by the TDP Government which feels no purpose would be served by meeting Dr. Singh on the inter-State dispute. Plans to meet leaders of CPI (M) and other political parties have also been shelved. Reacting rather sharply to the Congress leader's decision, the Minister for Major Irrigation, Kadiam Srihari, said it ``exposed Ms. Gandhi's attitude towards the interests of Andhra Pradesh''. ``We are disappointed. The Chief Minister wanted to meet her as he felt that she has an important role to play on this issue,'' he told reporters after an all-party meeting held under the chairmanship of Mr. Naidu. The Congress was, however, on the defensive. M. V. Mysoora Reddy, MLA, said a solution to the Paragodu row could be found only by Constitutional authorities of whom Ms. Sonia Gandhi was not one. The Congress was not averse to submitting a memorandum even to the Karnataka Chief Minister, S.M. Krishna, who was also a Constitutional authority. Dr. Mysoora Reddy said the question of Ms. Gandhi finding a political solution did not arise since it was not a private dispute between two parties. The Government was the proper statutory authority before which the dispute was to be raised. ``It is unfortunate that Ms. Sonia Gandhi's name is being dragged into the issue''. Disagreeing with the view, the BJP floor leader in the Assembly, N. Indrasena Reddy, said Ms. Gandhi's response was disappointing since the delegation had sought an appointment with her in her capacity as the Leader of the Opposition, which was a statutory position. ``It is an insult to the all-party team,'' he added. Earlier, the all-party meeting unanimously resolved to expand the scope of its representation to the Central leaders beyond the Paragodu project. Apart from a plea to resolve the dispute over Paragodu and other projects in the Pennar basin, the memorandum would now seek to restrain Karnataka from violating earlier agreements in respect of the Upper Tunga project, the Tungabhadra Dam and the Rajolibanda Diversion Scheme (RDS). The CPI (M) leader, Koratala Satyanarayana, said the delegation would request the Prime Minister to review the Central Water Commission's clearance for the Upper Thunga project as it would adversely affect several projects in Andhra Pradesh. The CWC had permitted Karnataka to use 12.24 tmcft of water for this project in addition to 11.5 tmcft allocated by the Krishna Water Disputes Tribunal even though heavy silting had reduced the storage capacity by 34 tmcft. ``How can the CWC allot additional water without its availability? More than 3.5 lakh acres in Andhra Pradesh will go dry and drinking water projects in Anantapur district will go dry,'' he said. Among others who attended the meeting were J. C. Diwakar Reddy, P. Govardhan Reddy (Congress), C. Ramachandraiah (TDP) Nomula Narasimhaiah (CPI-M), K. Laxman (BJP), M. Kishan Rao (TRS) and Asaduddin Owaisi (MIM).
Printer friendly
page
News:
Front Page |
National |
Southern States |
Other States |
International |
Opinion |
Business |
Sport |
Miscellaneous |
|
|
|
The Hindu Group: Home | About Us | Copyright | Archives | Contacts | Subscription Group Sites: The Hindu | Business Line | The Sportstar | Frontline | The Hindu eBooks | Home |
Copyright © 2003, The
Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of
this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of
The Hindu
|
