The meeting of the apex council on a distribution of river waters between AP and Telangana, scheduled for Wednesday. The main agenda will be to discuss on Telangana's demand for a share in Krishna water as compensation for AP diverting Godavari water through the Pattiseema lift irrigation scheme among others.
The apex council, set up as per the mandate of the AP Reorganisation Act, 2014, is headed by Union water resources minister Uma Bharti. Its members are the chief ministers of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana.
Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu and his Telangana counterpart K Chandrasekhar Rao will attend the meeting, the first major one between the two leaders on sharing of water. Though the two chief ministers met several times in the last two years, this is for the first time that they are sharing the table with the central government.
Meanwhile, the Union water resources ministry has finalized the agenda for the meeting. Copies of the agenda were circulated on Tuesday to both states. The "principles of sharing of Godavari water diverted to Krishna" is one of the items on the agenda. Telangana has been demanding a share in Krishna water as AP is diverting the Godavari water to Krishna delta.
The agenda listed for the Wednesday's meeting has surprised AP officials as there is no reference to AP's main demand that it should be allowed to operate the right bank canal of Nagarjunasagar, central government's control on water release, and calculation of minor irrigation sources in Telangana.
There will also be the discussion on Palamuru-Rangareddy and Dindi projects. The Apex Council meeting has been convened on the direction of Supreme Court in a writ petition filed against new projects on river Krishna. With many contentious issues on the agenda, the Apex Council meeting is set to witness the high-voltage drama.
Naidu will leave for Delhi on Wednesday morning. He is scheduled to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi. He will also call on Union finance minister Arun Jaitley to discuss the finer details of the special financial package to AP unveiled by the Centre earlier this month.
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BY M. DIVYA SRI
