: A decision has been taken to form a committee with three senior members of the Central Water Commission to ensure that the orders of the Krishna River Management Board were implemented.
Both the States would be called for yet another round of talks in a month in an attempt to bring about a consensus, said Andhra Pradesh Minister for Water Resources Devineni Umamaheswara Rao.
Addressing the media in New Delhi on Thursday, the Minister rapped his Telangana counterpart T. Harish Rao for charging Andhra Pradesh with trying to secure water for the third crop at the expense of the sibling Telugu State. “Out of the 811 tmcft allotted to Andhra Pradesh, we received only 71 tmcft this year and the Telangana Minister is charging us with securing water for the third crop,” Mr. Umamaheswara Rao said.
Talks between Andhra Pradesh and Telangana over the issue of notification to put common irrigation projects like Nagarjunasagar and Srisailam under the control of the KRMB as stipulated in the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act, were inconclusive even on Thursday. The two Ministers along with senior officials meet in the chamber of Union Special Secretary Amarajit Singh on Wednesday evening and again on Thursday morning.
“Threat from Almatti
dam is real”
He said the Central Water Resources officials were shocked when they were told about how the Telangana government utilised water for power generation when the four districts of Rayalaseema did not have water to drink.
The Minister said that a committee of three senior CWC officers would be sent to study the situation and provide “teeth” to the KRMB for the implementation of its orders.
When Andhra Pradesh insisted that a notification be issued to bring the projects under the control of the KRMB as per provisions of the Re-organisation Act, it was told that the committee would also expedite the process, Mr. Umamaheswara Rao said.
