Sharing of Godavari water between T'gana, AP to have major

Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao on Thursday said the proposed sharing of Godavari river water between Andhra Pradesh and Telangana by diverting it to Srisailam project would yield major benefits.

He said the ongoing talks between the two states on the matter were likely to take a concrete shape in the next meeting.

"Recently, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister and their team of senior officials have come with the proposal to link Godavari and Krishna and fill Srisailam (project) with Godavari water.

Luckily, Krishna has got good (inflow of) water this time (year). Sometimes, it is not getting (water) at all," he told reporters during the inspection of PalamuruRanga Reddy lift irrigation project works in Mahabubnagar region.

"They have come up with the proposal to comprehensively use water in the rivers (flowing) in both the states.. Talks are going on. Once fruitful, we will see some amazing things in the days to come," he said.

He pointed that Mahabubnagar district, partially Nalgonda and some other areas would get water once the proposal translates into reality.

There will be agreements between the two states on linking of Krishna and Godavari rivers and the project would be implemented after that, he added.

Earlier, Rao and his AP counterpart Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy had held talks on sharing of river water and other inter-state issues.

Rao alleged that TDP Chief and Andhra Pradesh opposition leader N Chandrababu Naidu spoke with narrow-mindedness with regard to linking to Godavari and Krishna rivers.

He hit out at the Congress leaders in Telangana for criticising his government, after "failing" to provide water to Mahabubnagar district while the party was in power.

Rao, who also inspected Karivena project, considered the key reservoir under Palamur lift irrigation scheme, directed that works pertaining to the reservoir be completed on a war footing, an official release said.