Thaindian News

Hyderabad/Nanded (Maharashtra), July 16 (IANS) Amid high drama, Telugu Desam Party (TDP) chief N. Chandrababu Naidu and 75 of his supporters, who had reached Nanded in Maharashtra to visit the controversial Babli project on the Godavari river, were arrested Friday.
Tension prevailed at Andhra-Maharashtra border as the Maharashtra Police took Naidu and nine other TDP leaders into custody after assuring them that they would be taken to the project site.

Later, the police arrested other TDP leaders at the border near Dharmabad in Maharashtra’s Nanded district, about 350 km from here.

Naidu and the arrested TDP leaders, including MPs, Andhra legislators and former ministers, were taken to the Dharmabad police station.

Some TDP activists, who continued to stage protest at the border, alleged that Maharashtra Police betrayed Naidu and others by promising to take them to Babli dam.

Maharashtra mobilised hundreds of policemen and sealed the border to stop Naidu and his party legislators who reached there from Hyderabad in four buses. The district administration also banned the assembly of five or more people.

Maharashtra Home Minister R.R. Patil issued a stern warning to Naidu and his supporters that they would be arrested if they attempted to create any kind of disturbance.

He said that despite the matter being sub-judice before the Supreme Court, Naidu and his supporters attempted to go to the dam site, following which they were arrested.

Later, Naidu and his supporters - lodged under tight security at a government technical college - declined to apply for bail ostensibly as the water issue concerned the citizens of his state.

Earlier speaking on the occasion, Naidu lashed out at Maharashtra government for not allowing them to visit Babli and said this was being done to suppress the truth.

“Do we need visas to visit a place in Maharashtra?” he asked.

The former Andhra Pradesh chief minister alleged that they had every right to survey Babli and 13 other projects being illegally constructed by Maharashtra across the Godavari.

Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister K. Rosaiah spoke to Naidu over phone Thursday night, advising him to call off his “bus yatra” that he said would heighten tensions between the two states.

Naidu, however, ignored Rosaiah’s appeal as well as the decision of the Maharashtra government not to allow him to enter the state.

Naidu had invited Rosaiah and leaders of all parties, including the ruling Congress, to join the yatra. But only leaders of the Lok Satta party joined him.

The TDP chief told reporters that it was a fact-finding mission aimed to start a national debate on Babli and 13 other illegal projects across Godavari.

Rosaiah plans to take an all-party delegation to Delhi on July 23 to meet Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to urge him to ask Maharashtra to stop construction of projects.

The Babli dam, with a capacity of 2.75 thousand million cubic feet, has been a bone of contention between the two states for five years when its construction began near Babli village.

Andhra Pradesh apprehends that the construction of dam would cut off water supply to the Pochampad dam in Telangana region of that state, adding to the woes of the farmers and create serious drinking water supply problems.

Babli Dam, on which Maharashtra government has so far spent nearly Rs.200 crore, became the subject matter of a petition filed by the Andhra Pradesh government in 2006.

Later a political activist, Madhu Gouda, also filed a public interest litigation case, both are pending before the apex court.