The Telangana government has termed the Krishna River Management Board (KRMB) order directing it to use only three tmcft of water from the Srisailam reservoir for power generation till November 2 “one-sided and taken under political pressure from Andhra Pradesh.”
Speaking after Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao taking stock of the development with Irrigation Minister T. Harish Rao, Principal Secretary (Irrigation) S.K. Joshi, Advisor (Irrigation) to Government R. Vidaysagar Rao and Engineer-in-Chief C. Muralidhar, Mr. Harish Rao said the river board had neither powers nor purview to take such decisions on water sharing. The State was exploring legal options and getting ready for a legal battle on it, he said.
“Only the tribunal has the purview and powers to share water and the A.P. Reorganisation Act has clearly stated about the KRMB’s powers of implementing the water allocation made by any tribunal or decided through mutual consent between the two States,” the Telangana Irrigation Minister said. He accused the KRMB of being partisan stating that the board had sent a notice to Telangana within 24 hours of AP’s complaint and taken a decision within 48 hours.
However, the same board was sitting on a complaint made by Telangana on use of 62 tmcft from Srisailam officially (93 tmcft unofficially) already against the allocation of 15 tmcft to Chennai for drinking water and 19 tmcft to SRBC. Even the 34 tmcft allocation had to be drawn between July 1 and October 31 as per the Central Water Commission’s order in the past, Mr. Harish Rao pointed out.
Board has powers: APAsked whether Telangana would continue power generation in the Srisailam Left Bank powerhouse after November 2, Mr. Harish Rao said they were taking the legal opinion on the issue and was writing two more letters to the KRMB highlighting its violation of its purview and silence on Telangana’s complaints against AP.
Meanwhile, official sources of AP said the KRMB was an empowered board and expressed the hope that Telangana would abide by its order. “The board has powers to control violations by Telangana and we (AP) will complain it again if Telangana violates the order,” a senior official stated.
