Telangana, Andhra war of words hots up

The war of words between Telangana and Andhra Pradesh over sharing river water and power intensified Saturday, a day after Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao called his counterpart N. Chandrababu Naidu a "cheat".

Leaders of the ruling Telugu Desam Party (TDP) in Andhra Pradesh hit back at Chandrasekhar Rao and asked him to stop making baseless allegations.

Irrigation Minister D. Umamaheswar Rao said Telugu people were hanging their heads in shame over the kind of language being used by KCR, as the Telangana chief minister is popularly known.

Deputy Chief Minister N. Chinna Rajappa accepted KCR's challenge for a debate on the sharing of Krishna river water.

He said the Telangana chief minister was misleading people over the issue. Another minister G. Srinivasa Rao said KCR's inefficiency was responsible for the electricity shortage in Telangana but he was trying to hold Naidu responsible.

"You can't always cheat people. The truth will prevail," he said.

The ministers from Andhra claimed that Naidu with his vision, hard work and efficiency overcame electricity shortage in the state but his counterpart in Telangana has the habit of politicising every issue and blaming others for his failures.

Escalating the row further, KCR Friday night declared that Telangana will continue generation of electricity at Srisailam.

He charged Naidu with flouting the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act by denying Telangana its due share of electricity generated in the power plants.

The Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) chief also announced that Telangana will challenge in the Supreme Court two orders of the undivided Andhra government relating to the water level to be maintained by the two states in Srisailam and Nagarjuna Sagar dams.

Andhra Pradesh has accused Telangana of using the water for electricity generation in violation of the two orders.

KCR also appealed to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to intervene and ensure that Telangana gets its due share of electricity as per the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act.