The Hindu Business Line : AP: All-party team to meet PM over Almatti issue

AN all-party delegation headed by the Chief Minister, Dr Y.S. Rajashekara Reddy, will call on the Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, later this week, seeking the Centre's intervention to get water released from the Almatti dam in Karnataka.

The matter came up in the State Legislative Assembly on Monday when the Telugu Desam leaders wanted to have resolution on the issue passed by the House. Since the dam impounds more water and the water flow is restricted, the TDP leaders felt a resolution would help impress upon the Karnataka Government and the Centre about AP's concerns.

However, the Finance Minister, Mr K. Rosaiah, said that this is a sensitive issue and a mere passing of a resolution expressing concern would not be able to solve the inter-State issue. It could also be counter-productive with Karnataka Assembly passing a similar resolution. Therefore, the best way to sort this matter out would be to lead an all-party delegation to the Prime Minister and impress upon him to resolve the matter. The team is likely to go to Delhi later this week.

The matter was earlier raised by a Congress member who wanted the Karnataka Government to release water to meet the requirement of Krishna delta farmers. It may be recalled that a team of legislators from the State had met their counterparts in Karnataka seeking release of water, particularly for farming operations.

UNI adds from Karimnagar: The Chief Minister, Dr Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy, today assured the farmers of the Krishna delta region that the Government would prevail upon Karnataka and secure the release of Krishna water from the Almatti dam in 10 days.

The Chief Minister, who is touring this district under the Rajeev Palle Batta (Rajeev Village Mission) programme, told reporters that a critical situation had arisen due to the failure of rains in the State as well as the Western Ghats in neighbouring Karnataka.

He said the State had received 55 per cent less rains than the usual rainfall this season, creating an acute shortage of irrigation and drinking water.

Dr Reddy said the situation would take a serious turn if there were no rains in the next four-five days.

He described the situation in North Telangana region as ``alarming.''

The Chief Minister, however, hoped that there would be rains in the Western Ghats in the next 10 days facilitating release of water from the Almatti dam.

Before leading an all-party delegation to New Delhi to present the State's case to the Prime Minister, he said he would call an all-party meeting to explore ways to surmount the situation.

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