Water woes: TDP angry at govt

NEW DELHI: The Telugu Desam Party (TDP) is upset over the Centre’s indifference to the ongoing water dispute between Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka. It believes that the BJP is being lenient towards Karnataka as the party has a political stake in that state while that is not the case with AP.
As an important ally of the ruling NDA, the TDP had expected that the Central leaders, including PM Vajpayee, would rush to admonish the Karnataka government for overdrawing its water and violating the inter-state agreements on irrigation projects.As it happens, its plea for Central intervention has fallen on deaf ears.
Last week, when AP chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu was in Delhi, he especially met Vajpayee in this connection and asked him to restrain Karnataka from overdrawing water. The PM merely assured him that justice would be done. However, there has been no follow-up action, said TDP MPs.
Similarly, when this issue was discussed in the Rajya Sabha this week, no assurances were held out to the AP members who had charged that Karnataka is depriving AP farmers of their legitimate share of water, resulting in drought-like conditions in several parts of the state.