At a time when drought conditions are staring at both Telangana and Andhra Pradesh and their reservoirs remaining almost empty, half through the southwest monsoon, the two States are engaged in a war of words over one another’s irrigation projects taken up after bifurcation of combined AP.
Apart from writing to the Central Water Commission (CWC) and the Union Government, the two States have exchanged over a dozen letters during the couple of months accusing one another of taking up new irrigation projects without getting necessary permissions and in violation of AP Reorganisation Act. However, the war of words over water has intensified further from the last week of July with the two dashing off letters every two-three days.
As such, the two States have a bitter experience over utilisation of river water, particularly in the Krishna basin, ever since they are divided into two from combined AP. The two States have fought tooth and nail over utilisation of water in Srisailam for generation of power and that of Nagarjunasagar for irrigation needs since last July.
“It was AP which started the recent bout of letters by writing to the CWC and Union Water Resources Ministry complaining against Telangana on Palamuru-Rangareddy and Dindi lift irrigation projects intended to irrigate parched lands of Mahabubnagar, Nalgonda and Ranga Reddy districts and to provide drinking water en route and in Hyderabad,” a senior official of the Irrigation Department stated.
In his recent letters to the CWC and Telangana, Principal Secretary (Irrigation) of AP Aditya Nath Das alleged that both the Palamuru and Dindi were new projects and not the ones approved by combined AP Government as being claimed by Telangana. In his response, the Telangana counterpart of Mr. Das, Shailendra Kumar Joshi, has reiterated that the two projects were approved in the past and cited GOs issued in 2013 and 2007, respectively.
Besides, Telangana Government has accused AP of taking up Pattiseema lift irrigation project out of the blue to divert 80 TMC ft of Godavari water to Krishna basin without getting necessary permissions. But, AP shot back that Pattiseema was not a new project but was part of Polvaram project. “Pattiseema is a special arrangement made to realise the benefits of Polavaram in advance,” Mr. Das wrote earlier this week.
However, AP had to face embarrassment when Union Minister of State for Water Resources Sanwar Lal Jat told Lok Sabha in a written answer on July 23 that Pattiseema was not part of Polavaram and neither CWC nor the ministry had received any proposals on it from AP.
Joining the issue, Telangana Irrigation Minister T. Harish Rao said on Thursday that they had every right to complete the projects approved in combined AP.
