The revelation of the Krishna River Management Board (KRMB) that Telangana State drew an excess of 8 tmcft depriving Andhra Pradesh the same amount of Krishna water allotted to it by the board should be an eye-opener to the Central Government, say irrigation experts.
Water Resources Department’s State Apex Committee member Alla Gopalakrishnaiah, reacting to the KRMB’s statement on Telangana overdrawing water from the Krishna, said that it happened only because the Nagarjuna Sagar Project (NSP) was in the control of Telangana.
He said there were several occasions when A.P. released water from the Srisailam reservoir, under instructions of the KRMB, to Nagarjuna Sagar, but no water was released downstream from the NSP either to the Krishna delta or the NSP Right Canal.
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Unless Srisailam and the NSP were handed over to the KRMB, there was no guarantee that this would not repeat, Mr. Gopalakrishnaiah said.