It's Sena's turn to march towards Salura project in AP

MUMBAI: Now, it’s the turn of the Shiv Sena to take the battle over water into Andhra Pradesh, after the protest by the Telugu Desam Party ( TDP) over the Babhali dam project in Maharashtra.

The Sena men on Thursday launched an impromptu march towards the Salura lift irrigation project across the Manjira river in Andhra Pradesh as tension prevailed on the AP-Maharashtra border. Alleging that the project has come up on the Maharashtra territory, Shiv Sena began a march while Andhra Pradesh mobilised police forces on the border to stop them.

Senior police officials of Nizamabad district spoke to their counterparts in Maharashtra’s Nanded, urging them to stop the protesters. The people in Bodhan fear an attack on the project. The Maharashtra government had raised objections in 2004 when the construction of the project was taken up. Andhra Pradesh director general of police R R Girish Kumar also spoke to his Maharashtra counterpart N Shivanandan and requested him to prevent the Shiv Sainiks from marching into the state.

AP’s major and medium irrigation minister Ponnala Lakshmaiah reviewed the situation here with top officials. He said Salura project was built after Survey of India submitted a report and talks with the Maharashtra government were concluded.

The minister blamed the opposition TDP for allowing parties in Maharashtra to rake up the controversy through its protest over the Babhali dam on the Godavari river. “TDP’s action has created problems,” he told reporters in Hyderabad.

This follows the TDP chief N Chandrababu Naidu’s march. Mr Naidu and 74 other party leaders were arrested by Maharashtra police on July 16 when they tried to proceed towards Babhali dam being built by Maharashtra.