Andhra Pradesh and Telangana have started drawing water from the Nagarjuna Sagar Project on Tuesday.
Minister for Water Resources Devineni Umamaheswara Rao told The Hindu that 1,000 cusecs was being released into the NSP Right Main Canal and the quantum would go up to 5,000 cusecs gradually. Mr. Umamaheswara Rao said Telangana would also release water into the Left Main Canal.
The two States are drawing water as part of a mutual understanding. This seems to be in accordance with the directive of the KRMB that the engineers-in-chief of the two States should consult each other before drawing Krishna water. The NSP recorded an average inflow of 23,500 cusecs on Tuesday and the reservoir was holding 273 tmcft compared to the 187 tmcft on the corresponding date last year.
Officers and engineers of the Andhra Pradesh Water Resources Department had anxious moments when they received word about water being released to Nagarjuna Sagar Left Bank Canal in the morning. A team of officials was despatched to cross check the information.
There has been tension between Andhra Pradesh and Telangana over the sharing of river Krishna waters in Srisailam reservoir.
The Telangana government has complained to the Union Water Resources Department that Andhra Pradesh was drawing water from the reservoir through the Pothyreddipadu head regulator without the approval by the KRMB.
As per the Andhra Pradesh Re-organisation Act, it is the responsibility of KRMB to supervise the drawing of water in accordance to the amount apportion to them by the Krishna Water Dispute Tribunal (KWDT). Almost immediately Telangana also wrote to the Union Government accusing that KRMB was favouring Andhra Pradesh.
The Board responded by writing a letter to the Centre says that neither Andhra Pradesh nor Telangana were following its directives and that it was best that the engineers-in-chief of the respective States coordinated with each other and share the water.
Ever since A.P. had been drawing 15,000 cusecs from Pothyreddipadu, 2,025 cusecs was being drawn by the HNSS lift irrigation scheme. Telangana on the other hand used the Mahatma Gandhi Kalawakurthy Lift Irrigation Scheme to draw 1,600 cusecs.
The inflows to Srisailam dam have been progressively coming down from nearly 50,000 cusecs about a week ago to 7,000 cusecs on Tuesday.
