CMs of Telugu states adopt 'give and take' policy on issues

Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao and his Andhra Pradesh counterpart Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy on Monday decided to act in a spirit of give and take on all issues concerning the two states.

Importantly, both the leaders have reached a consensus on transferring Godavari river water to the irrigated area served under Krishna river.

Jagan Mohan Reddy and Rao had a meeting for about six hours at the latters camp office-cum-official residence here and discussed issues concerning the two states and also local and national political situation, a press release from Raos office said on Monday night.

The Chief Ministers also decided to soon resolve issues mentioned in the 9th and 10th schedule of the Andhra Pradesh Re-organisation Act (concerning division of government corporations, institutes and others).

The two said they felt that farmers of Rayalaseema in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana's Mahabubnagar and Nalgonda districts, whose irrigation needs are served under the Krishna river, are facing shortage of water in view of inconsistent availability of water in Krishna, it said.

They decided that the irrigation needs of these farmers can be met by transferring Godavari river water to the irrigated area served under Krishna.

They decided to discuss in detail on the modalities for transfer of Godavari water in their next meeting, it said.

The two Chief Ministers spoke to their respective Chief Secretaries and asked them to meet soon towards resolving the issues concerning 9th and 10th schedules of the AP Reorganisation Act.

These issues remained unresolved since the bifurcation of undivided Andhra Pradesh in 2014.

Rao and Jagan Mohan Reddy, in their previous meetings after the latter became the Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh, had decided to work on sharing river waters for the benefit of both the states.

It was expected that political issues, including ongoing debate on CAA, and the YSR Congress governments thinking on decentralising administration by developing Visakhapatnam as executive capital, might also figure in the talks.

There was, however, no official word immediately on, whether these specific issues figured in the talks or not.

Farmers in the Andhra Pradesh capital region of Amaravati have been protesting, demanding that the capital city should not be shifted anywhere else as they have donated lands during the previous TDP regime for development of capital city.