KCR and Jagan agree to link Godavari and Krishna rivers

Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy met his Telangana counterpart K Chandrasekhar Rao at Pragati Bhavan, the latter’s official residence in Hyderabad on Monday, to discuss pending issues related to the bifurcation of the two states.

The meeting assumed significance as both the CMs, who had a lengthy discussion on diverting Godavari waters to Krishna River via interlinking, decided to go ahead with the process, with less land acquisition.

Both the CMs discussed from where Godavari waters can be linked to the Krishna and at what alignment. They agreed that the linkage and utilisation of water should be useful for the both the states.
According to a statement from the Telangana Chief Minister’s Office on Monday night, they decided to adopt give-and-take approach on common issues of both the states.

KCR requested that Jagan train 4,000 police recruitees of Telangana in Andhra Pradesh as the Telangana state is recruiting 18,000 police personnel in one go. For this, Jagan responded positively.

The two Chief Ministers also discussed matters that had come up since their previous meeting

In August, both the Chief Ministers discussed several pending issues between the states in a meeting. A panel of engineers and senior bureaucrats is looking into issues with regard to water sharing.

The Andhra Pradesh government earlier came up with a proposal to divert water from Godavari river to Nagarajuna Sagar and Srisailam projects on Krishna river with two TMCs each in order to serve the needs of Rayalaseema region.

The series of meetings between both the CMs is being seen as the sign of cordial relationship between the states.

Earlier when Chandrababu Naidu was CM of residual Andhra Pradesh, there were very few meetings between the CMs, given the political situation and animosity between KCR and Naidu.

There are certain issues such as division of institutions under the 9th and 10th schedule between the states and distribution of employees as per the provisions of Andhra Pradesh Re-organisation Act 2014, which are still pending.

TRS leader and Rajya Sabha MP J Santhosh Kumar was present during the meeting with KCR, while Jagan was accompanied by MPs Midhun Reddy, Vemireddy Prabhakar Reddy and TTD Chairman YV Subba Reddy and several bureaucrats from Andhra Pradesh.