Andhra Pradesh was not pilfering water from the Srisailam reservoir through the Pothireddypadu regulator as alleged by Telangana, Minister for Water Resources Devineni Umamaheswara Rao said here on Tuesday.
Giving details about the water being released from the Srisailam reservoir to the Nagarjunasagar reservoir and also from the Pothireddypadu regulator and the Handri-Neeva Srujala Sravanthi (HNSS) Scheme to Rayalaseema, the Minister said the Kurnool Irrigation division Superintending Engineer had already submitted a requisition to draw five tmcft for the Telugu Ganga Project, three tmcft for the Chennai Water Supply Scheme and three tmcft more for the Srisailam Right Bank Canal.
The Minister said both States were utilising water from the Srisailam dam for power generation and were releasing it to Nagarjunasagar.
Of the total 75,993 cusecs being released, Telangana was using 40,824 cusecs and Andhra Pradesh 30,561 cusecs for power generation. Another 1,458 cusecs were being released to the Pothireddypadu regulator and an additional 2,025 cusecs were being drawn by the HNSS scheme.
The Minister said 2,160 tmcft had already been discharged into the Bay of Bengal from June 1 till today from the Godavari River, but the total water utilised was just 90.3 tmcft. The total amount of water transferred from Godavari River to Krishna basin from the Pattiseema Project was 21.9 tmcft. Because of this, farmers in four districts had the good fortune of sowing crop in 10 lakh acres, he said.
Prathipati slams YRSC
Minister for Agriculture Prathipati Pulla Rao came down on YSR Congress leaders for alleging that the TDP government had failed to provide relief to Guntur district farmers.
The Minister alleged that entire Dachepalli mandal was inundated because of a faulty road work taken up by a contractor who belonged to the YSRC. He urged the Opposition party to stop “mudslinging” and appreciate the efforts being made by Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu.
