The Andhra Pradesh government is upset at the Centre’s delay in notifying the jurisdiction of the Krishna River Management Board over both the Nagarjunasagar and Srisailam dams as specified in the AP State Reorganisation Act.
The government had urged the board to take control of both the dams at the first meeting itself, several months ago, but the board was waiting for the Central government to notify its jurisdiction. The letter, a strong one at that and to be sent in a day or two, was to express the government’s disappointment with the delay, a top official said.
He explained that the board would not be in a position to function effectively until the jurisdiction was notified.
In fact, the AP government was ready to hand over the control of both the dams to the board and wanted Telangana to follow suit. “There has to be a decisive action by the Government of India. Seven months down the line, the jurisdiction of the board has not been notified and both the governments were blaming each other.”
He said that there should not be a feeling that only one State was exercising control over both the dams and it would be better if the Centre intervened quickly in the matter to prevent any ugly situation arising in future.
“TS ignoring river
board’s orders”
While the two dams belong to both Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, the officials from Andhra Pradesh were not allowed to visit the Srisailam project site in Telangana recently when they wanted to inspect if power was being generated. Although the Superintendent Engineer from Andhra has “de jure” control on the left side of the Srisailam dam in Telangana, he has not been allowed to visit.
He said the Chief Engineers of the dams should be under the control of the board. Otherwise, the board would lose its relevance if its orders were subjected to approval by the respective governments. The board’s orders on release of water from Nagarajunasagar were not honoured by the Telangana government, he charged.
