The disagreement between Andhra Pradesh and Telangana over contentious issues related to utilisation of Krishna river water continued at the meeting of Krishna River Management Board (KRMB) held here on Friday. The two sides stuck to their respective stand on the supervision of the combined projects and also on the issue of new projects.
The meeting did not take any decision on handing over the combined projects’ supervision to the KRMB led by Centre Water Commission (CWC) officials with the members from administrative and engineering side of the two States. Official sources said that the issue was raised by the AP officials, immediately after its commencement, but the officials from Telangana opposed it outright citing several reasons.
It is said that AP officials had alleged that Telangana had drawn water unilaterally from the Left Bank of Srisailam in the name of power generation and had also not released required quantity of water from Nagarjunasagar. However, the Telangana officials were said to have pointed out how they had released more water than the quantity agreed for when the standing crop was suffering in the Krishna Delta last year.
Sources said that the contention of Telangana against handing over the combined projects’ management to KRMB was on the grounds of the Brijesh Kumar Tribunal on Krishna waters not completing the allocation of water project-wise after bifurcation of the combined AP and lack of necessary men and material to KRMB to shoulder the responsibility among others. The Telangana officials were understood to have sought to know how the board could take a decision without discussing the all-important issue threadbare by circulating its proposals on the issue barely a couple of days before the scheduled day of the meeting.
