New Delhi, June 21: Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee today assured Andhra Pradesh chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu that the Centre would act immediately on the controversial Paragodu Project and the move by Karnataka to increase the height of a dam on upper Tunga river. Naidu who led an all party delegation to meet the Prime Minister told reporters that he had apprised Vajpayee of Karnataka's efforts to build a higher capacity dam at upper Tunga which would affect Ananthpur and Mehbubnagar districts.

Naidu also brought to the notice of Vajpayee the Paragodu project across Chitravathi River in Kolar district by Karnataka in the name of drinking water.

The delegation, comprising representatives from ruling TDP, opposition Congress, BJP and Left parties, said the upper riparian Karnataka was allegedly violating the inter-state agreements and central government's orders and going ahead with projects against the interests of Andhra Pradesh.

The members of the delegation included K Srihari, state irrigation minister, Diwakar Reddy (Congress), Indrasena Reddy (BJP), Hasaddudin Owaisi (MIM), N Narsimhaiah (CPI-M) an TDP MPs K Yerrannaidu, C Ramachandraiah, B K Parthasarthy and Karnan Balram.


Bureau Report