Krishna! Krishna! Who’s right, who’s wrong?

Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy took serious objection to the absence of the leader of opposition K Chandrashekar Rao and said that he should have been present while Uttam Kumar Reddy took a broadside at the BRS Government for accepting the enhancement of the capacity of the Pothireddypadu head regulator and construction of the Rayalaseema Lift scheme by the AP Government

Hyderabad: Who is the culprit? Who has compromised with the interests of Telangana regarding its share in Krishna water? Who is to be blamed BRS or Congress? This was the issue that rocked the State Assembly on Monday and its echo will be heard in the state till the Lok Sabha elections are over.

While the State Government gave a detailed powerpoint presentation claiming that it was the previous government that had agreed for a lesser share in Krishna water before the first meeting of the Krishna River Management Board and reiterated the same in all successive meetings year after year, the former irrigation minister and BRS leader T Harish Rao said that the government was misleading the House and the state, and said that it was the present Congress government which had agreed to hand over the management of projects and release of water to KRMB.

Harish Rao said that this was done as the leader of opposition had called for a public meeting in Nalgonda on Tuesday to expose the government.

Countering this, Irrigation Minister N Uttam Kumar Reddy read out minutes of the meetings of various meetings held by KRMB wherein it was stated that the state government had agreed for 293 tmc feet of water for the new state as against over 500 tmc feet for Andhra Pradesh. He also produced the letters written by Secretary Smita Sabharwal to the Centre on the state’s readiness to handover the projects to the Board.

Uttam Kumar took a broadside at the previous Government for accepting the enhancement of the capacity of the Pothireddypadu head regulator and construction of the Rayalaseema Lift scheme by the AP Government. He said after the meeting between KCR and Jagan in May 2020, the AP government increased Pothireddypadu capacity to 44,000 cusecs from 11,150 cusecs. The BRS maintained that Jagan’s statement was regarding Godavari water and the Minister was misleading the House. Intervening, Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy took serious objection to the absence of the leader of opposition K Chandrashekar Rao and said that he should have been present here and stated his party’s stand on the resolution under discussion.

Revanth Reddy said the resolution moved by the government clearly states that it would not handover the projects to the Krishna River Management Board (KRMB).

Earlier, Uttam Kumar Reddy said the previous government had compromised in safeguarding the interests of the state in the utilisation of Krishna water and also the handing over the projects mainly Srisailam and Nagarjuan Sagar to the Board. He quoted a letter dated December 1, 2023 written by Smita Sabharwal to the Centre saying that the Telangana government in principle agreed to hand over the control of the common projects in terms of gazette notification dated July 15, 2021. He added that Chief Secretaries of both states agreed for KRMB to take control of reservoirs.

He said the present government neither signed the minutes of meeting or any agreement on January 17, 2024 agreeing to hand over control of reservoirs to KRMB as was being alleged by BRS.