Centre slams brakes on Kaleshwaram works
Centre slams brakes on Kaleshwaram works
Hyderabad: Union Minister for Jal Shakti Gajendra Singh Shekhawat has responded to a letter written by Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao over illegal projects taken up by the Andhra Pradesh government on river Krishna and Godavari and also objections raised by AP government against Telangana projects.
The Union Minister informed the Telangana government that no permission has been granted to the Telangana to utilise 3 tmcft of water per day by increasing Kaleshwaram project capacity. The Minister asserted that the expansion works of Kaleshwaram should be taken up only after obtaining required permission from the Centre.
Shekhawat, in the letter, said that the AP government had strongly opposed the projects taken up by Telangana government and suggested the Telangana government to stop the works until further orders from the Union Ministry. He clarified that the Ministry was ready for installation of telemetry system to ascertain the utilisation of water by the two States if the two States were ready.
Shekhawat also explained that AP government had been asked to stop the increase of the Pothireddypadu head regulator capacity. The Centre warned the AP of action if the regulator works were not stopped.
The Minister also made it clear to constitute Krishna River Dispute Tribunal-3 if the two Telugu States withdraw their petitions filed in the Supreme Court.
"K Chandrashekar Rao has written a 14-page letter in October this year. He accused the Krishna River Management Board (KRMB), constituted for water sharing between the two states, of being biased against Telangana and favouring Andhra Pradesh.
He said Andhra Pradesh was going ahead with the expansion of Pothireddypadu head regulator capacity on the Srisailam reservoir to draw 80,000 cusecs of water from the Krishna river to Pennar basin.
Rao said the regulator was originally meant for drawing only 1,500 cusecs to supply drinking water to Chennai. He also raised several water-related disputes pertaining to the State," the Minister informed.