Shabhash! Devineni Uma, Babu praises Minister

Major Irrigation Minister Devineni Uma has received a pat from Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu for his arguments in Delhi about the case of Andhra Pradesh at the meeting called by Union Water Resources Minister Uma Bharati between the Telugu states for sharing the Krishna waters. The Chief Minister praised Devineni at the Cabinet meeting on Friday, where several issues were discussed. Devineni had two rounds of meetings with his Telangana counterpart, T. Harish Rao, under the auspices of the Union Ministry, but the differences could not be ironed out. He did not yield even to the compromise formula of maintaining status quo. While the talks were unsuccessful, Devineni is believed to have put forward the State's argument effectively that the split of Andhra Pradesh had gone against the natural interests of the Andhra region. Coming out of the Delhi meeting, Devineni told newsmen that Telangana was going ahead with a skewed argument. The Chief Minister also praised Irrigation Secretary Sashibhushan Kumar, Chief Engineer Venkateswar Rao, and Inter-State Supervisory Chief Engineer Ramakrishnan.