logo
Telangana govt opposes Banakacharla agenda in upcoming CMs meeting

Telangana govt opposes Banakacharla agenda in upcoming CMs meeting

Hans India10 hours ago
The Telangana government has formally expressed its objections to the agenda set by Andhra Pradesh regarding the Banakacharla project, ahead of a meeting called by the Union Water Resources Minister, CR Patil.
In a letter to the Centre, Telangana made it clear that it sees no need to discuss the Banakacharla project during the forthcoming meeting scheduled for the 16th of this month. Instead, the state has suggested prioritising discussions on pending projects related to the Krishna River. Among its proposals, Telangana has sought national status for the Palamuru and Dindi projects, advocated for the Ichchampalli project to be taken up by the Centre, and requested the allocation of 80 TMC of water for the Pranahita project at Thummadihetti. Furthermore, Telangana has proposed a new initiative to harness 200 TMC of flood water.
In its correspondence, the Telangana government highlighted that there have been no approvals for the Banakacharla project and that relevant laws and tribunal judgments are being violated. Consequently, officials argue that it is inappropriate to discuss the Godavari-Banakacharla link project, warning that such actions could undermine trust in the central government's regulatory agencies.
The meeting, intended to address the concerns of both Telugu states, will now take place at 2:30 PM at the headquarters of the Water Resources Ministry in Delhi, following a postponement from its original date of the 11th due to a lack of positive engagement from the Chief Ministers. Andhra Pradesh, meanwhile, has maintained its focus solely on the Banakacharla agenda for discussion. The Water Resources Ministry has requested both states to submit any additional agenda items for consideration ahead of the meeting.
Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

Opposition senses ‘opportunity' in electoral roll revision, frequently rakes up issue
Opposition senses ‘opportunity' in electoral roll revision, frequently rakes up issue

Time of India

time19 minutes ago

  • Time of India

Opposition senses ‘opportunity' in electoral roll revision, frequently rakes up issue

Patna: During the 2020 , the opposition Grand Alliance (GA) missed forming the govt by a whisker. Five years later, the special intensive revision (SIR) of electoral rolls being conducted by the Election Commission ahead of the polls in the state has come as a blessing in disguise for GA, feel poll analysts. Tired of too many ads? go ad free now GA is armed with a prominent issue that is supposedly causing confusion among electors, they said. Cashing in on the 'opportunity', leader of opposition in the state assembly, , along with INDIA bloc allies, is raking up the concerns of voters almost daily. So far, he has held around six press conferences over the issue, indicating the significance of the issue, while the NDA has held none. The opposition is finding it a major opportunity to reach out to a large number of voter, cashing in on the anger gripping them. "First, your name will be deleted from the voter list, and in due course, you will lose benefits from all welfare schemes that you might be getting now, one by one," Tejashwi has repeatedly warned at press conferences. Explaining how the deletion of names of the voter proves disastrous for the poor, RJD spokesperson Chitranjan Gagan said on Tuesday: "Deletion of names from the voter list means losing every govt facility." He said the biggest loss the people could face is not getting 5 kg free ration. Of the total population of 10.41 crore, as per the 2011 census, the total number of beneficiaries under the Centre-sponsored Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana in Bihar is around 8.71 crore, which comes to 84% of the total population. They will also not be getting houses under PM Awas Yojana, pension and other such facilities. Social scientist B N Prasad said the EC has launched such a big campaign, but the methodology remains unclear. Tired of too many ads? go ad free now "It is not clear if the BLOs are visiting door to door to deliver/collect enumeration forms. No BLO has visited my home so far. Also, the voices coming from the grassroots do not appear fair or accurate," Prasad, who works with the AN Sinha Institute of Social Studies, told the TOI. "This is a theatre of the absurd," said former principal of Patna College, N K Chaudhary, while reacting to the opposition's hullabaloo over the SIR issue. "But EC should have given more time and increased the number of documents required to be submitted with the filled-up enumeration forms," he said. The opposition has found a potent issue—much like in the 2015 Bihar polls, when NDA's lead crumbled after RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat called for a review of the reservation policy. RJD chief Lalu Prasad turned it into an 'opportunity', warning voters that the RSS-BJP aimed to dismantle the quota system.

Rao's reforms enabled coalition govts to deliver better results: Naidu
Rao's reforms enabled coalition govts to deliver better results: Naidu

Business Standard

time23 minutes ago

  • Business Standard

Rao's reforms enabled coalition govts to deliver better results: Naidu

Describing former Prime Minister (PM) P V Narasimha Rao as 'India's Deng Xiaoping', Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister (CM) N Chandrababu Naidu on Tuesday said the economic reforms unveiled by the Rao-led minority government in 1991 were the reason India's coalition governments delivered better results than those with clear majorities. The Andhra CM is on a two-day visit to the national capital, where he is scheduled to meet PM Narendra Modi, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, and others. He met Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Tuesday. In his meetings with the PM and Union ministers, Naidu will seek the Centre's support for projects in his state, release of pending funds, the Polavaram–Banakacherla river-linking project, and issues related to the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme, Telugu Desam Party (TDP) sources said. On Tuesday evening, Naidu delivered a lecture on 'The Life and Legacy of P V Narasimha Rao' at the Prime Ministers Museum and Library (PMML) in the national capital. His lecture was the sixth in the PMML-organised Prime Ministers Lecture Series. He described Rao as a 'true Telugu bidda', or Telugu son of the soil, who 'reshaped the destiny' of India, and said the Telugu community is proud of his contributions. Rao, who passed away in December 2004, was posthumously awarded the Bharat Ratna in 2024. Referring to the recent controversy over some states accusing the Centre of imposing Hindi, Naidu said Rao had mastered 17 languages and serves as an inspiration in the current context. The Andhra CM said Rao, despite leading a minority government, accomplished the near-impossible task of forging consensus on economic reforms among socialists, communists, and capitalists alike. Naidu credited Rao's prime ministerial tenure, and subsequently that of Atal Bihari Vajpayee, for India's first-mover advantage in the information technology sector and for building world-class infrastructure, especially in roads and telecommunications. Naidu said that in 1978, when Deng launched China's economic reforms, both India and China were $140 billion economies, while the US economy was 15x larger at $2.3 trillion. Now, the US economy is only 1.5x bigger than China's, and more than 7x bigger than India's. 'They (China) are catching up (with the US). We are behind,' Naidu said, stressing that the journey from being the world's fourth- or third-largest economy to one of the top two will be much more challenging. Naidu said 2014 was a turning point in India's growth story, with the country getting Modi as PM, who has 'ushered in a new era of bold and decisive leadership'. He said the goal is not just to grow fast, but to grow fairly, where every citizen, every region, and every sector shares the fruit of progress. Citing World Bank data, he said India is among the top four most income-equal countries but stressed that the country still needs to become more equitable. He urged the top 10 per cent of India's wealthy to uplift the bottom 20 per cent, appealing to them to follow tech billionaire Bill Gates' example and 'give back to society'. On his vision for Andhra, Naidu spoke about his government's Quantum Valley initiative in Amaravati. He urged youth to join politics and said the TDP's parliamentary party is the youngest in the Lok Sabha. He also noted that TDP's representative in the Union Cabinet, Civil Aviation Minister K Ram Mohan Naidu, is the youngest minister at the Centre. During his visit to Delhi, Naidu and Telangana CM A Revanth Reddy are also scheduled to attend a meeting on water issues being facilitated by the Centre on Wednesday. The Telangana government is expected to press the Centre to grant approvals and funds for its long-pending projects. It had earlier conveyed its objection to the Centre regarding Andhra's Banakacherla river-linking project, saying that it hurts Telangana's interests.

SC Summons Samay Raina, Other Comedians Over Alleged Remarks On Disabilities
SC Summons Samay Raina, Other Comedians Over Alleged Remarks On Disabilities

India.com

timean hour ago

  • India.com

SC Summons Samay Raina, Other Comedians Over Alleged Remarks On Disabilities

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Tuesday directed stand-up comedians Samay Raina, Vipul Goyal, Balraj Paramjeet Singh Ghai, and Nishant Jagdsish Tanwar to appear personally before the court on the next date of hearing over their alleged insensitive remarks against persons with disabilities. A bench of Justices Surya Kant and Joymalya Bagchi allowed comedian Sonali Thakkar, also known as Sonali Aditya Desai, to appear virtually during the next hearing. The apex court recorded the presence of Raina, Goyal, Tanwar, Ghai, and Thakkar and directed them to file their replies to the petition within two weeks. They all appeared before the apex court today in pursuant to court's earlier order. The bench made it clear that no extension will be granted beyond this period and warned that any absence on the next date of hearing will be viewed seriously. The apex court asked Attorney General R Venkataramani, representing the Centre, to prepare social media guidelines while balancing the freedom of speech and expression and the rights and duties of others. Venkataramani sought time to assist the court on the issue and said the enforceability of guidelines would require detailed consideration. "What we are doing is for posterity. You have to ensure that not a single word is misused by anyone. You have to ensure balance. We have to protect citizens' rights. A framework must be there that the dignity of anyone is not violated," the bench said. #WATCH | Delhi | Comedian Samay Raina arrives in the Supreme Court, to appear before the court in the matter related to allegedly mocking persons with disabilities. — ANI (@ANI) July 15, 2025 The top court was hearing a petition filed by M/s Cure SMA Foundation seeking a prohibition on the broadcast of derogatory and denigrating content on the digital media against persons with disability. It also sought the formulation of guidelines to safeguard the rights and dignity of persons with disability in the context of the broadcasting of online content. On May 5, the bench had summoned the comedians to appear before it or face coercive action after the plea alleged that they ridiculed persons suffering from SMA, a rare disorder, and also those suffering from other disabilities on their show. The top court had also issued notice to the Union of India through the Ministries of Information and Broadcasting, Electronics and Information Technology, Social Justice and Empowerment, and News Broadcasters and Digital Association, and Indian Broadcasting and Digital Foundation. The NGO brought to the notice of the court the broadcast of certain online content, media and programmes that are derogatory, offensive, denigrating, ableist or belittling to persons with disability, or their diseases, or their treatment options. The petitioner was also aggrieved by the lack of any explicit statutory guidelines to sufficiently regulate the broadcast of such online content, which violates the right to life and dignity of persons with disabilities, while transgressing the qualified right of free speech and expression. It asked the court to put a positive obligation on both the government and private actors to adopt a unique standard of representation of persons with disability in the online domain. The NGO accused Raina of insensitive remarks on persons with such conditions, high-costing drugs and treatment options for Spinal Muscular Atrophy and also alleged to have ridiculed a person with disability. It flagged videos where he made comments on persons with disabilities. The petition said these comedians are public figures and enjoy a following of millions of viewers/users on various social media intermediaries. "The petitioner is concerned by certain live and pre-recorded event videos of these individuals, due to their offensive, denigrating and dehumanising representation of persons with disabilities," the petition said. "These videos shed light on the widespread irresponsible, insensitive and violate dissemination of such online content that contravenes the rightsof the persons with disability under Article 14 and 21 of the Constitution of India, propels offensive stereotypes and misguided portrayals against them, and detrimentally impacts their societal participation, and fosters insensitivity and inhumanity against them, and as such falls within the reasonable restrictions under Article 19(2)," said the petition.

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into a world of global content with local flavor? Download Daily8 app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store