TDP's Maha-dharna as scheduled on Prakasam barrage

Undeterred by the hurdles created by the Congress Government, the Telugu Desam district unit is going ahead with its Maha Dharna on Prakasam Barrage for Friday.

 Earlier, the ruling Congress exerted pressure on Irrigation Department to turn down permission for the proposed dharna on the pretext of the weak bridge. Now, the decks have been cleared with the police personnel and Irrigation officials according permission for the dharna.

Responding to its application for permission to organise a dharna, the police department on Thursday gave the go-ahead to the activists but not without some riders. Besides arranging barricades on the barrage, the TD leaders will have to erect a railing and take care of the footpath which is not in good shape.

Telugu Desam leaders Gorantla Butchaiah Chowdary, D Umamaheswara Rao and Gadde Rammohana Rao met police commissioner KV Rajendranath Reddy and discussed at length the arrangements being made for the protest programme. Later Uma said lakhs of farmers of Krishna and Guntur districts would attend the Maha Dharna which would be addressed by Telugu Desam president N Chandrababu Naidu.

 The protest programme was aimed at seeking the state's due share of Krishna waters, Uma said, adding it is nothing but gross failure of the government as Maharashtra is able to make a claim on Krishna waters.

Taking a dig at the Congress, Uma asserted the government failed to present its arguments effectively before the tribunal. The Congress leaders had no right to criticise the proposed dharna.

Meanwhile, former MLA Devineni Rajasekhar (Nehru) said the Maha Dharna would prove counter-productive as it would antagonise the Justice Brijesh Kumar Tribunal which was hearing the arguments of Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra and Karnataka.