The Krishna River Management Board (KRMB) has decided to continue sharing of water by Andhra Pradesh and Telangana in the existing 66:34 ratio for the current water year too and told the two members States that there is not enough water to meet the irrigation needs for the rabi season under the two common reservoirs – Srisailam and Nagarjunasagar.
The meeting chaired by Board Chairman A.S.P. Sinha was attended by Chief Secretary S.K. Joshi, who is also officiating as Special Chief Secretary (Irrigation) and Engineer-in-Chief (ENC) C. Muralidhar from Telangana and Principal Secretary (Water Resources) Shashibhusan Kumar and ENC M. Venkateswara Rao on behalf of AP, besides a few other senior irrigation officials from the two sides. Member-Secretary of the Board A. Paramesham was also present.
Heated arguments
Sources in the Irrigation Department said after the meeting that there were heated arguments between the two sides on the issue of water utilised already, as they differed on the quantity availed. However, the river board officials explained that the inflows in the river basin for the two States so far this water year was estimated at 593 tmc ft and together they had utilised 341 tmc ft already including 253 tmc ft by AP and 88 tmc ft by Telangana.
The two sides, however, have agreed on making the telemetry equipment functional, where it has already been established after rectifying the anomalies and also to go for setting it up at more places, on which the two sides had already reached an understanding. It is learnt that the issue of anomalies in the administrative set-up of the board was also raised by the Telangana side and they had brought their contentions to the notice of the new Chairman of the Board.
Further, the issue of shifting the Board’s office to Amaravati was also discussed at the meeting and it was decided that a team of the board would visit the AP’s capital on Monday to examine suitable buildings to house the office. A letter was written to the Board by AP recently seeking shifting of the river board office to Amaravati, as provided for by A.P. Reorganisation Act.
The Board officials said that Telangana has availed 14 tmc ft and AP has availed 128 tmc ft water from Srisailam so far. Telangana has utilised another 35 tmc ft water above Srisailam – from Jurala. Similarly, from Nagarjunasagar Telangana has availed 34 tmc ft water so far and AP 94 tmc ft including 42 tmc ft in Krishna Delta System. The Board has suggested the two States to utilise the remaining water in the common reservoir with priority to drinking water.
