A meeting between the Irrigation Department officials of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana held here on Monday failed to arrive at any decision on utilisation of about 105 tmcft water available in the Srisailam and Nagarjunasagar (NSP) projects.
Principal Secretaries of Irrigation S.K. Joshi (Telangana) and Aditya Nath Das (AP), Engineers-in-Chief M. Venkateswara Rao (AP) and C. Muralidhar (TS) and Irrigation Advisor to Telangana R. Vidyasagar Rao and others participated in the meeting.
There was strong disagreement between the two sides on the water utilised by them this year as they pointed fingers at each other about excess utilisation.
Officials from Telangana wanted for a detailed calculation on the total quantity of received in Krishna river and the quantities utilised by the two States.
However, AP counterparts suggested that digging into the past would not serve any purpose and it would be better to discuss about the needs of irrigation with the available water. They proposed drawal of water from Nagarjunasagar right canal for the standing crop of late kharif and that it would require about 50 to 60 tmcft water.
Opposing the AP’s proposal, the Telangana officials said they would not agree such huge drawal of water and in case AP decided to utilise water on its own they (Telangana) too would release water to the Nagarjunasagar left canal for the rabi crop as they had not utilised water as per Bachawat allocation so far this season.
But, AP officials contended that there was allocation for rabi under the left canal and they would not agree such drawl of water. Finally, the officials of Telangana made a proposal that AP could utilise water as per its requirements now but free hand should be given to it (Telangana) next year in case of an equal quantity of water.
The meeting ended abruptly with the AP officials stating that they would discuss the proposal with their government before reverting.
