Andhra Pradesh chief minister K. Rosaiah on Wednesday chided his Maharashtra counterpart Mr Ashok Chavan’s “short memory” on the Babhali row and gave a pat to the Telugu Desam chief, Mr N.Chandrababu Naidu, for conducting the agitation braving cops.
Mr Chavan had been quoted in newspapers as saying that the Telugu Desam agitation on Babhali was meaningless since the AP government itself was not bothered about the project.
“I am constantly talking to Mr Chavan on Babhali and the AP government made the Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, and the Union water ministry declare that the projects in Maharashtra were illegal,” said Mr Rosaiah in a sharp reaction. “We went to the Supreme Court and got stay orders on erection of gates.” “Perhaps his (Mr Chavan’s) memory is very short and he has to be corrected on the statement that my government is not concerned about the projects,’’ Mr Rosaiah told mediapersons.
The chief minister condemned the high-handiness shown by the Maharashtra police towards the TD MLAs but also gently ridiculed Mr Naidu by pointing out that the projects were initiated during his tenure way back in 1995 but he seemed to have woken up from slumber in 2010.
The chief minister also said Mr Naidu launched the agitation with an eye on the bypolls, and remarked that the TD chief perhaps wanted to stay back in Maharashtra to avoid campaigning for the party candidates in Telangana. Mr Rosaiah expressed unhappiness at the Union water resources minister, Mr P.K. Bansal, suggesting that chief ministers of both states should sit and sort out the controversy and said the Centre had to play a role in a federal set up.