Criticism on BRS Krishna water utilization: CM Revanth Reddy's stance on water

BRS Krishna water utilization controversy:

Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy claimed on Sunday that the previous administration failed to protect the state's interests when it came to the use of Krishna river water, which caused more damage to Telangana during the BRS regime than it did during undivided Andhra Pradesh.

He stated at a press conference that the BRS is purporting to undermine the Congress government by "covering up its own sins" as per Telangana Chief Minister KCR's statement regarding the transfer of Krishna and Godavari river projects to the Centre.

In response to BRS leaders' assertion that transferring the projects to the Krishna River Management Board (KRMB) would be detrimental to the state's interests, he refuted this criticism. Recently, Telangana and its neighbouring state, Andhra Pradesh, agreed to give the KRMB control over the water release from the Srisailam and Nagarjuna Sagar projects. This includes 15 outlets based on the projects and spillways of the two joint storage facilities for the two states.

Following the Andhra Pradesh Re-Organization Act of 2014, the Central Government set up the KRMB to oversee, regulate, maintain, and run projects as directed by the Central Government from time to time. The Act says that the projects should be given to the river management boards. The Chief Minister said that K Chandrasekhar Rao, who is president of BRS and was Chief Minister before, was an MP when the Act was passed. He said that KCR was consulted when the Act was written.

Telangana Andhra Pradesh water disputes:

In 2015, the BRS government agreed that Telangana would get 299 TMC of the undivided 811 TMC share of the Krishna river. This was despite the fact that 68% of the area that the Krishna river flows through is in Telangana, he said. He said that as per the water-sharing agreement between Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, they also agreed in 2019 to keep giving the same amount every year. He added that the BRS government agreed to hand over the Srisailam and Nagarjuna Sagar projects at a KRMB meeting in 2022.

"Telangana suffered more damage during Chandrasekhar Rao's tenure as Chief Minister for ten years in Krishna river water more than the damage it suffered during the 60 years of undivided Andhra Pradesh," he stated.

At the same time, N Uttam Kumar Reddy, the state's irrigation minister, said the government would not give the projects to KRMB. In response to what Revanth Reddy said about the BRS, T Harish Rao, a party MLA and former minister, said that the BRS government did not give the projects to KRMB even though the Centre pushed them to in the wake of Krishna river water allocation issues.