A meeting of the working group of Krishna River Management Board to take up the water indent of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh for drinking purposes, failed to come to an understanding on Wednesday due to wide differences in demands put forth by both the States.
Against 10 to 12 tmc ft of water available at the sill level at Nagarjunasagar, Andhra Pradesh demanded 8 tmc ft from the right bank canal for drinking needs of Guntur and Prakasam. The State also sought water to meet the drinking requirements of its far off places served by left bank canal which mainly catered to areas in Nalgonda and Khammam. Andhra Pradesh insisted on simultaneous release of water to the State by left bank canal when Telangana got its share.
On the other hand, Telangana demanded 3.6 tmc ft for drinking water purpose to Hyderabad and 1.44 tmc ft from Jurala project to serve rural water supply schemes in nearby villages. As both States stuck to their respective stand, the member-secretary of the board, Samir Chatterjee, adjourned the meeting and promised to reconvene negotiations after speaking to irrigation secretaries of both the States.
The meeting was confined to AP Engineer-in-Chief M. Venkateswara Rao, his Telangana counterpart C. Muralidhar and Mr. Chatterjee.
Mr. Chatterjee told media persons that the demands of the States could not be met as water levels in Nagarjunasagar were critical. AP scaled down its demand from 16 tmc ft to 8 tmc ft in view of low water levels. Sources said AP expressed helplessness in exploring alternatives if water was not released immediately. The State took the stand that it had good reason to demand immediate release as Jurala will be filled in a day or two due to inflows from upstream on account of opening of gates of Alamatti and Narayanpur dams.
Mr. Rao suggested an alternative mechanism for water release from Nagarjunasagar in future in view of frequent conflict of interest of the States. He raised the demand of the State that the board wrest management and control of projects on Krishna. However, this was turned down as the matter was pending with the Ministry of Water Resources. His suggestion that AP be allowed to operate its own water release gauge station till the decision was made was also not conceded.
