Ahead of the May 6 meeting of the Krishna River Management Board, Telangana government has requested the river board to incorporate views expressed by Telangana at the board’s previous (14th) meeting seeking 50% share in the river waters allocated for combined Andhra Pradesh in the minutes.
Special Chief Secretary (Irrigation) Rajat Kumar wrote to Chairman of KRMB M.P. Singh on Monday that the minutes of the previous meeting circulated along with the draft agenda for the next meeting of the board did not contain the view of Telangana, particularly on the agenda item related to river water sharing.
“The view of Telangana have not been recorded correctly in the minutes circulated. We had requested 50% share in Krishna water based on the requirement for Telangana’s in-basin needs after agreeing under protest to accept the decision of the river board to continue with the ad-hoc water sharing arrangement for 2021-22 in the ratio of 66:34 for AP and Telangana,” Mr. Rajat Kumar wrote to the KRMB Chairman.
He, however, pointed out that Telangana had accepted the ad-hoc arrangement with the condition that the water drawal by A.P. from Srisailam reservoir, one of the two common storage facilities for the two States, be restricted to 34 tmc ft. The views of Telangana were not included in the minutes circulated, he noted.
The Telangana officials has also made it clear that the State government would be constrained to deny confirmation of the summary record of the minutes in case the views expressed by it were not incorporated explicitly.
