Politics Aside, Farmers First: Telangana MPs Unite Against AP’s Godavari–Banakacherla Project

· CM Revanth Reddy, Minister Uttam to meet Jal Shakti Minister on Thursday to stall AP’s project

· Congress, BJP, BRS and MIM MPs attend all-party meet on Banakacherla, vow full support

Hyderabad, June 18: In a strong show of unity cutting across party lines, the Telangana Government, under the leadership of Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy and Irrigation Minister Capt. N. Uttam Kumar Reddy, on Wednesday launched a full-scale political, technical, and legal counter-offensive against the Andhra Pradesh Government’s controversial Polavaram-Banakacherla Link Project (PBLP).

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Chairing an all-party meeting attended by MPs from Congress, BJP, BRS, and AIMIM, the Chief Minister declared that Telangana would not allow its rightful share of the Godavari and Krishna waters to be diverted. “Politics can wait. Farmers’ rights come first,” Revanth Reddy said, urging all parties to stand together in defense of Telangana’s water interests.

The meeting, held at the Dr. B.R. Ambedkar Telangana Secretariat, was attended by Congress MPs Renuka Chowdhury, Dr. Mallu Ravi, Suresh Kumar Shetkar, Anil Kumar Yadav, Chamala Kiran Kumar, Balram Naik, and Raghuveera Reddy, BJP MPs DK Aruna and Raghunandan Rao, BRS MP Vaddiraju Ravichandra, and AIMIM MP Asaduddin Owaisi. Irrigation Minister Capt. N. Uttam Kumar Reddy gave a comprehensive technical presentation, exposing the serious legal, hydrological, and inter-state violations embedded in the proposed PBLP scheme.

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The ₹81,900-crore project, Uttam Kumar Reddy explained, seeks to divert 200 TMC of Godavari floodwaters from the to the Penna basin via Krishna, through a three-segment engineering design involving 417 km of open canals, pipelines, tunnels, and nine power-intensive lift stations. It proposes to irrigate 7.41 lakh acres of new ayacut and stabilize another 22.59 lakh acres of existing command areas in drought-prone Rayalaseema and adjoining regions. The proposed daily drawal from Polavaram is 3 TMC, with a massive power requirement of 3,792 MW — and all of this without consent from Telangana, a co-basin state.

Highlighting the violations, Uttam Kumar Reddy said the project directly breaches Sections 85(8)(d) and 90 of the AP Reorganisation Act, 2014. It alters the operational schedule of the Polavaram National Project and violates the Godavari Water Disputes Tribunal (GWDT) Award, which mandates consultation with all co-basin states before modifying inter-basin transfers. Further, the proposal ignores Telangana’s entitlement to 968 TMC of assured Godavari waters and unlawfully seeks to establish Andhra Pradesh’s “prescriptive rights” over surplus waters through infrastructure-driven fait accompli.

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The project, if executed, would cause severe submergence and backwater flooding in upstream Telangana districts. Uttam warned that sacred sites like the Bhadrachalam temple, Manuguru heavy water plant, and numerous habitations between Dummugudem and the Telangana–AP border would face frequent flash flood risks due to disruption in natural drainage and congestion of tributaries. He cited Clause VI(iii) of the GWDT final order, which clearly states that any change in the operation schedule must be done only after consultations with Telangana, Chhattisgarh, and Odisha — a condition blatantly ignored by Andhra Pradesh.

Uttam Kumar Reddy also pointed out the environmental and administrative failures of the PBLP. The Polavaram Project Authority (PPA), which is the statutory agency to oversee Polavaram-related activities, has not cleared the proposal. No Environmental Clearance (EC) or Terms of Reference (ToR) has been granted, and the Central Water Commission (CWC), in a 2018 report, had stated that there is no surplus water at Polavaram at 75% dependability. Yet, Andhra Pradesh continues to present the scheme as a “floodwater diversion,” misleading the Centre and violating both technical and legal norms.

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The Irrigation Minister revealed that while Telangana’s legitimate projects were being obstructed, Andhra Pradesh’s unlawful project was progressing at “war footing.” He accused the AP Government of forming a Special Purpose Vehicle, ‘Jala Harathi Corporation’, to hasten tendering and financial mobilisation, all without mandatory inter-state consultation.

Tracing Telangana’s resistance to the project, Uttam Kumar Reddy detailed the sustained efforts undertaken by the Government over the past several months. The timeline began in November 2024 when the Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister first wrote to the Union Finance Minister seeking ₹78,039 crore as a special package for the PBLP. This was followed by a renewed demand in December under the “Swarnandhra@2047” vision, pushing the total request to ₹80,112 crore. In response, the Telangana Government immediately began lodging formal objections, starting with a letter to the Godavari River Management Board (GRMB) in early January. On January 22, Irrigation Minister Uttam Kumar Reddy wrote to both the Union Jal Shakti and Finance Ministries, warning that the project would breach the APRA and GWDT Award and demanded denial of financial assistance. On January 24, the Principal Secretary of Irrigation addressed the CWC and GRMB to formally request that AP be restrained from proceeding further. On March 3, CM Revanth Reddy and Uttam personally met Union Jal Shakti Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat and handed over a letter requesting immediate intervention. Even after Andhra Pradesh issued a GO on April 8 for the formation of the SPV, Telangana escalated objections. During a May 14 meeting with the GRMB Chairman, CM Revanth once again raised concerns, followed by further communications to the Centre on May 28, June 11, June 13, and June 16. These letters opposed the pre-feasibility report (PFR), questioned the Ministry of Finance’s role, and urged the Ministry of Environment not to grant any ToR.

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In his address, Revanth Reddy took direct aim at former CM K. Chandrashekhar Rao, alleging that it was he who laid the ideological foundation for the PBLP. “It was KCR who first said 3,000 TMC of Godavari water was going waste in the 2016 Apex Council meeting chaired by Uma Bharti. It was he who agreed to Krishna share of only 299 TMC for Telangana. The meeting records are all on file. In 2019, KCR and Jagan sowed the seeds of this project together. Today’s threat was born back then,” Revanth Reddy stated. He called upon all parties to set politics aside and fight as one. “Let’s stand united in Parliament and the courts. This is a fight for Telangana’s future.”

The meeting ended with a unanimous decision to escalate the matter through all legal and constitutional channels. CM Revanth and Minister Uttam Kumar Reddy will meet Union Jal Shakti Minister C.R. Patil in New Delhi on Thursday to demand immediate rejection of Andhra Pradesh’s pre-feasibility report. Simultaneously, Telangana is preparing to file a writ petition in the Supreme Court, challenging the legality of the project and seeking a stay on all related proceedings.

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“Politics aside, we will never compromise on farmers’ interests. Water is our lifeline, and Telangana will fight – technically, legally, and politically – to safeguard it,” the Chief Minister said. (Maxim News)

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