Water war reaches new high

Hyderabad: The Telangana Government has decided to take the ongoing water war between the two Telugu states to a new high.

A high-level review meeting on Irrigation chaired by Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao on Saturday demanded that the meeting convened by the Krishna River Management Board on July 9 be cancelled. The TS government demanded a full-fledged meeting of the KRMB after July 20. It said that the full board meeting should include the issues related to Telangana State.

Stating that TS would not agree to the allocation of water for the Pothireddypadu project which was being taken up 'illegally' by the Andhra Pradesh Government, KCR asked the officials to take this issue and put up a powerful argument before the board. He also directed the officials to prepare a detailed presentation on Pothireddypadu and Rayalaseema lift irrigation projects to be presented to the KRMB.

The meeting further decided that it will inform the KRMB that the temporary sharing of water between TS and AP which is 66:33 ratio should be altered and from this year and water allocation between the two States from River Krishna should be 50:50. The TS government will argue that of the 811 tmc feet assured water, TS and AP should share 405.5 tmc feet each.

KCR directed the officials to ensure power generation to its full capacity from Srisailam, Jurala, Nagarjuna Sagar and Pulichintala as long as water was available in these projects.

The meeting also felt that KRMB had no right to direct TS to stop power generation. There is no agreement between the two Telugu States over power generation and hence KRMB cannot intervene regarding power generation, the meeting resolved.

Refuting the criticism of AP that water was going waste into the sea as TS was releasing water from these projects without consulting them, KCR advised them to utilise the water from the Prakasam barrage for irrigation and drinking water purposes in the Krishna delta region. 

This would help the AP government in saving expenditure on power to pump water from Pattiseema, he said.

He further said that AP should first seek all permissions before taking up new projects. He said the AP government had no right or reason to ask the Centre to intervene and see that hydel power generation was stopped.