Within two days of Telangana government complaining to the Central Government that the Krishna River Management Board (KRMB) was biased against the State in release of water from the reservoirs on the river, the board member secretary Samir Chatterjee has been replaced with his senior colleague in the Central Water Engineering Service, Parmesham.
The Centre has also appointed a member to the board Harkesh Meena in addition to the existing Member (Power) Venkatasubbaiah while confining Chairman S.K. Srivastava to the board and divesting his additional responsibility as member-secretary of Polavaram Project Authority (PPA). R.K. Gupta has been appointed member-secretary of the PPA.
Mr. Parmesham had earlier served in the Central Water Commission and the Ganga Flood Control Mission in different capacities.
The replacement of Mr. Chatterjee assumed significance in the backdrop of Irrigation Minister of Telangana T. Harish Rao writing a letter to Union Water Resources Minister Nitin Gadkari on Monday that the KRMB was ineffective and at times even biased and partial towards Andhra Pradesh.
He said that the board had not taken any decision on Telangana’s requests for water release but acted swiftly for similar requests by Andhra Pradesh.
On the same day, Mr. Chatterjee wrote letters to Engineers-in-Chief of irrigation of both States that they released water from Srisailam project power houses before issue of water release order by the board. Therefore, he asked them to settle the issue bilaterally, considering the safety of the dam and maintaining requisite level in the reservoir. By another letter to the ENCs, Mr. Chatterjee expressed helplessness to honour the indents placed by both the States for issue of water release order as their consent was not received. He noted that the indent received from one State was sent to the other for expression of views.
While Telangana sought 15 tmc ft water, Andhra Pradesh placed an indent for 19 tmcft.
