Date:12/12/2003 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2003/12/12/stories/2003121205070400.htm

Southern States - Andhra Pradesh

BJP for inter-basin transfer of water

By Our Staff Reporter

TIRUPATI Dec. 11. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) State vice-president, S.V. Seshagiri Rao, favours transfer of water from the Godavari basin to the Krishna basin to benefit the uplands in Rayalaseema, Telangana and the Uttarandhra districts.

Addressing a media conference here on Thursday, Mr.Rao said that the State was awarded 1,480 tmcft of the 3,000 tmcft of water available in the Godavari by the Bachawat Tribunal, in which he saw a huge potential to irrigate a whopping 1.40 crore acres. The Godavari, flowing at a velocity of 15-20 lakh cu.ft per second, could fill the Nagarjunasagar, the largest reservoir in the State, in less than three days, he said to lay stress on the untapped water flowing into the sea.

"If 600 tmcft is proposed to be diverted, 100 tmcft is sufficient to irrigate 10 lakh acres in Rayalaseema, while the rest can be allocated to Telangana and Uttarandhra,'' he said. With the realisation of the Godavari-Krishna linkage, the Godavari water could be diverted to Krishna and further to Srisailam, though a herculean task, which could be used to irrigate the Rayalaseema uplands. If the Godavari water is pumped up to the inter-basin ridge, it will flow on gravitation to the Krishna basin, he noted, adding that the Rs.40,000 crore project would include barrages, balancing reservoirs and other structures at Yellampally, Inchampally, Devadula, Dummagudem and Polavaram.

He felt that the constraints in the linkage were not insurmountable and could be overcome. Admitting that the cost was indeed huge, he said it should matter little in such infrastructure projects when the tangible returns covered a large section of ryots, not missing to question the Government's eagerness to pump in thousands of crores into international airports and seaports. He also saw a greater need to rejuvenate the 77,000 tanks lying in a dilapidated condition in the State. On the political side, he denied that the party's ongoing campaign "Neetikosam-Bhoomikosam'' was to play the `water and land' card in the run-up to the snap polls, saying that the party was through with the campaign much before the Government stepped down. Disagreeing with the view that the parties raking up water issues could confuse the common man, Mr.Rao reacted favourably to the idea of the parties sitting and chalking out a sharing pattern between regions.

The linkage plan also had been on the party's agenda for long, even before the Centre formed the national taskforce headed by the former Minister, Suresh Prabhu, to draw the contours for linking rivers, he observed. State party leaders Narayanaswamy Naidu, M.R.Raja, parliamentary constituency in-charge, V.Subramanyam Yadav, district president, S.Subbarami Reddy, town president, S.Prabhakar, were present.