Andhra Pradesh Irrigation Minister Devineni Umamaheswara Rao has dismissed his Telangana counterpart Harish Rao’s allegations that AP was preventing release of water to crops under Nagarjunasagar ayacut.
Addressing a press conference here on Saturday in the presence of Forest Minister Bojjala Gopalakrishna Reddy and Agriculture Minister P. Pullarao, Mr. Umamaheswara Rao said that when there was no water for the second crop, “ how could they allege that we are preventing release of water to farmers in Telangana,” he wondered.
Noting that only 88 tmcft of water was available in the Srisailam and Nagarjunasagar projects, the AP Irrigation Minister said that with his lack of understanding on Krishna waters, foresight and administrative experience, Mr. Harish Rao diverted 42 tmcft from Srisailam to Nagarjunasagar simply to spite AP. Had they conserved that water, they could have utilised it now for power generation through reversible turbines and also helped the farmers.
This year 2,000 tmcft of Godavari water and 72 tmcft of Krishna water went into the sea. The Congress government in combined AP State had spent Rs. 80,000 crore on Jalayagnam but Kadapa and Chittoor face acute drinking water shortage and pleading for at least 1 tmcft for horticulture crops. He said Andhra required 69 tmcft to protect crops in Krishna delta, under the Sagar Left Canal, SRBC right branch canal among others while Telangana required 18.12 tmcft, including 9.92 tmcft for Hyderabad water supply. The Krishna River Water Management Board was created as per the State Reorganisation Act and as per the suggestions of TRS, he recalled.
