YS Jagan on Save Delta Deeksha from May 16

After the overwhelming response to the Save Democracy dharna at Delhi, YS Jagan Mohan Reddy would sit on a three-day hunger strike on May 16, 17 and 18 at Kurnool with the slogan Save Krishna delta in protest against the faulty irrigation policy of Chandrababu Naidu, the river waters being usurped by neighbouring states while the State government has been focusing only on the welfare of the contractors and has been maintaining stoic silence on the injustice.

"Chandrababu Naidu has been silent and is scared of questioning Telangana government which is drawing away water from Mahbubnagar severely curtailing the inflow of water in to the state in wake of his involvement of cash for vote case while he has been liberal to contractors on irrigation projects which yield little or no benefit to the parched state, he told reporters here on Saturday.

While Telangana government is going ahead with Palamuru-Rangareddy and Dindi projects by lift irrigation drawing away more than 115 TMC and curtailing the Krishna waters which will severely affect the irrigation sector of the State, Chandrababu Naidu has no voice to question the injustice as he is deeply involved in the cash for vote case and is scared of broaching the issue.

On the other hand, he has been very liberal to contractors, even blacklisted ones, who have undertaken works on the Pattiseema, which is a parallel to Polavaram, despite having no storage capacity and has been deeply involved in the scam which is laden with kickbacks.

The works have been given at inflated rates despite no proportionate increase in raw materials, including cement, steel, petrol and diesel, he said.

As the ruling party has proved its inefficiency in not raising the issue of public importance pertaining to the core irrigation sector, we have decided to launch a three day protest programme and I will sit on a hunger strike at Kurnool, demanding the due waters for Andhra Pradesh and the intervention of Centre in the issue and set up Krishna and Godavari Water Boards for settling inter-state disputes, he said.

We have to save the Krishna delta, which includes Khammam and Nalgonda, by ensuring that proper and due share of waters flow into our state without any interruptions as the state is reeling under severe drought and being the tail end state will be at a disadvantageous position if no proper action is taken immediately.

The three-day dharna is aimed at drawing  the attention of Prime Minister Narender Modi and Chief Ministers of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh towards the injustice being done in water sharing, to save the ayacut of Krishna and Godavari and to highlight the failures of Chandrababu Naidu in mitigating the acute drought situation in the state.

If water is diverted at Mahbubngar, Srisailam and Nagarjuna sagar will not get water which will badly affect the Krishna delta, he said.

Chandrababu Naidu’s focus has been on favouring the contractors by accepting their excess quotes and allowing them to give works to sub-contractors on nomination basis as commercialization of governance has been Chandrababu Naidu’s priority and not providing irrigation and drinking water to the region.

Chandrababu’s indifference towards the state issues has come into the open when the minister told the Parliament that special status to Andhra Pradesh could not be possible. The statement comes out of the attitude of Chandrababu Naidu who has been watering down the core promise during the division of the State to compensate the loss incurred by the State.

Narender Modi who shared the dais with Chandrababu Naidu and Venkaiah Naidu during electioneering had said that the special status term should be increased from five to ten years and Chandrababu Naidu had even went on record that it should be further increased to 15 years.

The same Chandrababu Naidu has been talking in a different voice now belittling special status which gave the Centre much room to speak against the special status. If the state gets special status, there would be many incentives and exemptions which will enable the state to grow fast industrially but the state and Central governments are ignoring the issue, he said.