Telangana has sought full control over the operation of the Srisailam dam on the Krishna River to prevent Andhra Pradesh from building “illegal projects” without the Center’s permission. K Chandrasekhar Rao, the prime minister of Telangana, wrote a letter to Union Minister Jal Shakti, Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, on Friday in this regard.
In the 14-page letter, Rao accused the Krishna River Stewardship Council (KRMB) set up to share the water between the two states of being biased against Telangana and favoring Andhra Pradesh. He said Andhra Pradesh is continuing to expand the capacity of the main regulator Pothireddypadu in the Srisailam reservoir to draw 80,000 cusecs of water from the Krishna River to the Pennar basin. Rao, the regulator, was originally intended to extract just 1,500 cusecs to supply Chennai with drinking water.
Andhra Pradesh has finalized tenders for the construction of the Rayalseema Rise Irrigation Scheme to extract 3 TMC (1 billion cubic feet) of water per day from the Srisailam reservoir and transport it to Pennar and adjacent basins.
“Although the matter was brought to the attention of KRMB in February, it has not taken any steps to stop these illegal projects. The KRMB has also failed to install a telemetry system to measure large-scale illegal water extraction by AP [Andhra Pradesh] of the Pothireddypadu regulator. Instead, the board instructed Telangana to stop the release of water from the Srisailam Left Bank power house in Telangana, ”Rao said.
He cited the arrangements and said that the responsibility for operating the Nagarjunasagar Project was given to Telangana and the Srisailam Project to Andhra Pradesh. “Due to the failure of KRMB, Andhra Pradesh has taken advantage of this arrangement to illegally extract large amounts of water from Pothireddypadu.”
He said that the operation and control of the Srisailam Project should also be handed over to Telangana to prevent Andhra Pradesh from going ahead with its plans to expand the capacity of its projects.
“If Andhra Pradesh is allowed to go ahead with its infamous and illegitimate expansion plans now, there will be no water available to meet the requirements of the existing projects in Telangana, including the drinking water needs of the capital city Hyderabad.”
Rao said that Telangana was waiting to know its rightful share of the river’s waters even after six years of its formation. He asked the Center to address the issue within a specified time frame.
Rao called Andhra Pradesh’s objections to the projects being built on the Godavari River, such as the Kaleshwaram lift irrigation system, as a complete sham. He said that all these projects were contemplated, designed and founded before the creation of Telangana in 2014.
“The current government has only redesigned some of the projects to increase the irrigation potential within the Telangana riparian rights.”
The Center has called a meeting of representatives from the two states on October 6 to resolve their water disputes.
.
