Telangana chief minister accuses Modi government of bias

Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao Saturday charged the Narendra Modi-led central government of bias against the state.

The chief minister alleged that the Centre is not cooperating with Telangana in the implementation of the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act. He also reiterated that the Andhra Pradesh government is denying Telangana its due share of electricity and also stalling electricity generation at Srisailam.

A day after the Krishna Water Management Board allowed Telangana to produce electricity at Srisailam only till Nov 2, the Telangana chief minister reviewed the power situation at a meeting with top officials.

Stating that the state is facing acute electricity shortage, KCR, as the chief minister is popularly known, appealed to farmers not to grow cotton and go for alternate crops.

The ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) said Andhra Pradesh is not providing Telangana 54 percent share in electricity as prescribed in the Reorganisation Act, which led to a crisis. He said the state is generating power at Srisailam and Nagarjuna Sagar and also buying power from outside to tide over the acute shortage.

KCR said the state would face the electricity shortage for two to three years as he had stated during the election campaign. He said the state would purchase 1,000 megawatt power from Chhattisgarh.

The Krishna Water Management Board had Friday allowed Telangana to generate electricity by using water from Srisailam dam only till Nov 2. The state government has reacted sharply to the decision and is planning to challenge it in court.

Andhra Pradesh objected to the generation of electricity by Telangana on the ground that this will create drinking water and irrigation water crisis in the Rayalaseema region.