Hyderabad: The Andhra Pradesh Assembly
Tuesday witnessed a heated exchange between Chief Minister K
Rosaiah and Leader of Opposition N Chandrababu Naidu over
"illegal" projects being constructed by Maharashtra and
Karnataka governments on Godavari and Krishna rivers.
Naidu demanded that Rosaiah should step down from the
chief minister's post if he could not stop the illegal
irrigation projects at once. Irked by Chandrababu’s demand,
Rosaiah thundered: "Have you ever resigned from the post for
all the failures during your tenure as chief minister?"
The exchange took place during a short-duration
discussion on illegal irrigation projects in the Assembly.
Naidu intervened when some Congress members sought to push the
blame on to the TDP government for turning a blind eye when
Karnataka constructed the Almatti project on river Krishna.
He, along with other TDP member Tummala Nageswara Rao,
listed the steps his then government had taken to get the
height of Almatti dam restricted to 519 meters.
"But now Karnataka has clandestinely increased the dam
height to 524 metres as the Congress government was caught in
a deep slumber. Similarly, the Maharashtra also went ahead
with the construction of Babli and 13 other irrigation dams
illegally on river Godavari. In both cases, the AP government
did nothing to protect state’s interests," Naidu lashed out.
Naidu demanded that the chief minister should either get the
illegal projects stopped immediately or step down in case of
failure. This provoked Rosaiah to raise to his feet and take
exception to Naidu’s remarks.
PTI
First Published: Tuesday, July 13, 2010, 18:31