The Water Resources Department of the Ministry of Jal Shakti (MoJS) postponed the second meeting of the Apex Council, constituted under the provisions of the AP Reorganisation Act 2014, scheduled to be held on Wednesday (August 5).
Union Minister of Jal Shakti was supposed to chair the meeting with chief ministers of Telangana and AP as members. The meeting was supposed to discuss the disputes over river water sharing between the two states, particularly in the backdrop of AP’s plans to divert about 8 tmc ft of Krishna water every day from Srisailam reservoir under the RLIP and taking up expansion of the water drawal capacity of Pothireddypadu head regulator.
The first meeting of the Apex Council was held on September 21, 2016, with the then Union Minister of Water Resources Uma Bharati and the then CMs of AP and Telangana, N. Chandrababu Naidu and K. Chandrasekhar Rao, respectively.
The meeting was scheduled on August 5 through video conferencing in the wake of COVID but KCR sought its postponement to any date after August 20 due to his pre-planned engagements on August 5 and later. The CM’s decision, however, has drawn flak from the Opposition alleging that he had sought the postponement of the meeting to allow AP to complete the process of tenders of RLIP on August 19.
The communication sent to the two member states of the Apex Council also stated that a new date for the meet would be intimated soon.
