The Telangana government on Tuesday threatened to build a new project across the Krishna River on the shore of the Srisailam reservoir if Andhra Pradesh goes ahead with construction of the Rayalaseema elevation irrigation project on the river.
The Prime Minister of Telangana, K Chandrasekhar Rao, made it clear at the meeting of the superior council called by the Minister of Union Jal Shakti, Gajendra Singh Shekawat, through a video conference in which the Prime Minister of Andhra Pradesh, YS Jagan, participated. Mohan Reddy.
KCR accused the Andhra Pradesh government of unilaterally deciding to build the Rayalaseema elevation irrigation project in the Srisailam reservoir to extract an additional three tmc (1 billion cubic feet) of water from the Krishna River.
“If Andhra Pradesh does not stop the Rayalaseema elevation scheme, we too will be forced to build a new barrier between Alampur-Pedda Marur in Jogulamba Gadwal district to extract three mtc of water from the Krishna river,” KCR told the minister of the Union at the meeting.
He said that during the combined Andhra Pradesh regime, a great injustice was done to Telangana by sharing the river water. “Even after the bifurcation, if Andhra Pradesh behaves irresponsibly and tries to plunder Krishna’s waters according to his whims and fantasies, we will not tolerate it. We can also go to any lengths to protect the interests of our state, ”KCR said.
He said that the Telangana government had written to the Center in 2014 seeking the constitution of a new court to decide the division of water between Telangana and Andhra as a result of the bifurcation. “As there was no response from the Center, we had to approach the Supreme Court seeking a legitimate state participation in the waters of Krishna,” he noted.
While agreeing to Telangana’s demand for a new court, Shekawat nevertheless said that a decision could not be made as the matter was before the Supreme Court. KCR said that if the Center agreed to constitute the tribunal, its government would withdraw the petition in the SC.
The Telangana prime minister demanded that the Center allocate river water to the two states by project and opposed the Andhra Pradesh government’s move to divert water from Krishna to the Pennar basin. “Even the Krishna river board of directors also agreed with this principle,” he said.
Meanwhile, Shekawat told reporters in New Delhi that both Telugu states had agreed to submit to the union government Detailed Project Reports (DPR) of all new irrigation projects they had undertaken in the last six years after the bifurcation of states. .
He said the two states had also agreed to move the Krishna River Board of Directors office to Vijayawada from Hyderabad. The Center will soon decide the scope of the two river boards, he said.
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