The letters written by YSR Congress party president and Andhra Pradesh chief minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy to the Centre complaining against the illegal irrigation schemes being constructed on Krishna river and also unauthorised drawing of water for power generation in Telangana evoked sharp reaction from the Telangana Rashtra Samithi government.
While writing to the National Green Tribunal seeking contempt of court action against the Andhra government, the Telangana government launched a counter campaign against Jagan for complaining to the centre on the Telangana projects.
The official mouth pieces of the TRS – Namaste Telangana and Telangana Today, on Tuesday carried a story stating that Jagan had made a self-goal by writing to the Centre against the Telangana projects.
According to this news report, Jagan, in his letters to the Centre, indirectly admitted that the Rayalaseema Lift Irrigation Scheme (RLIS) is being built illegally without any permissions from the Centre or the Krishna River Management Board (KRMB).
The report said, Jagan, in his letter to Union minister for Jal Sakthi Gajendra Singh Shekawat, claimed that the RLIS and the Pothireddypadu head regulator, along with other existing projects such as Srisailam Right Bank Canal (SRBC), KC Canal, Telugu Ganga Project in Andhra Pradesh, are legitimate schemes and have all approvals besides water allocation by Krishna Water Disputes Tribunal-I.
On the contrary, the Andhra chief minister sought the intervention of the Union Minister for Environment, Forests and Climate Change Prakash Javdekar to direct the Environment Appraisal Committee (EAC) for River Valley Projects to issue environmental clearances to the RLIS.
“Thus, Jagan has admitted that the RLIS has no clearances from the Centre and so, he was seeking the Union Environment Ministry to influence an independent body like EAC to give an early environmental clearance for the project,” the report said.
