Hyderabad: Former Agriculture Minister S Niranjan Reddy on Saturday said the Congress government should give an explanation to the Andhra Pradesh government on the matter of appointing retired IAS officer and former Chief Secretary Adityanath Das as the government’s adviser on irrigation matters. Demanding immediate withdrawal of the appointment, he said the decision would be a big setback to the state’s interests. Questioning what benefit the state would get from this appointment, he said he had no personal grudge against the retired officer.

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But the officer had played a key role in stalling several Telangana projects, including the Palamuru Rangareddy Lift Irrigation Scheme, he said. This appointment is an indication of the kind of influence new Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu has on the affairs of Telangana, where his protégé Revanth Reddy is the chief minister. Niranjan Reddy said Naidu had started interfering in Telangana’s affairs even before he was sworn in as Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister. He said Adityanath Das was responsible for depriving Telangana of its fair share of Krishna river water. He had a key role in diverting water from Krishna projects to Andhra Pradesh. As an officer he had fought for Andhra Pradesh’s irrigation interests for the last 10 years after the bifurcation. He wondered how he could do justice to Telangana. He said Adityanath was the officer who had tried to demolish every claim of Telangana to its rightful right to the river water. The former minister said the officer had played a key role in snatching Telangana’s share of water by illegally tapping it through Andhra Pradesh’s Pothireddypadu and Rayalaseema lift irrigation schemes.