NEW DELHI, July 21: The BJP-led government was presented with yet another inter-State river water dispute when Andhra Pradesh MPs petitioned Prime Minister A B Vajpayee to intervene and stop construction of the Almatti dam across the river Krishna in Karnataka.Two delegations from Andhra Pradesh - one of Congress members and another comprising Telugu Desam and BJP members - met the Prime Minister separately today. They complained that the Karnataka government was constructing the Almatti dam to a height of 528 metres, while the Centre had cleared construction only up to a height of 512.02 metres. But the Andhra Pradesh MPs instead of projecting a united face allowed politics to get the better of State interests. The Congress and the Telugu Desam Party MPs competed with each other to meet the Prime Minister. The Congress in fact did not lose the opportunity to take a dig at TDP chief Chandrababu Naidu for failing to protect the interests of Andhra Pradesh when the United Front was in power at theCentre.It was ``unfortunate'' that Naidu ``who was also the convener of the United Front in the crucial period of accelerated construction of the dam could not protect the interests of the State because of his own political compulsions,'' the Congress MPs said in the memorandum given to Vajpayee.The TDP memorandum said that under the Bachawat Tribunal award, Karnataka could utilise only 160 tmc of Krishna waters for the Upper Krishna Project including the Almatti dam. But it was increasing the storage capacity at Almatti alone to 227 tmc, which facilitated utilisation of 428.75 tmc in ``gross violation'' of the Bachawat award.The ``designs'' of Karnataka would have a devastating effect on the economy of Andhra Pradesh as it would adversely affect the latter's downstream projects, it said.The Congress memorandum requested the Prime Minister to intervene immediately and stop the illegal construction by the Karnataka government.
