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The Krishna River Management Board (KRBM) on Friday wrote to the Andhra Pradesh government to stop drawing of water from the river at Nagarjuna Sagar right canal with immediate effect, even as state irrigation minister Ambati Rambabu asserted that the state had every right to utilise its share of water, people familiar with the matter said.
KRMB member-secretary D M Raipure wrote to the Andhra Pradesh irrigation department authorities that the state had placed an indent for release of 5 tmc ft (thousand million cubic feet) of water from Nagarjunsagar for the month of October.
“So far, the KRMB ensured supply of 5.01 tmc ft of water. There was no representation from the state government for an additional quota of water in November,” the KRMB official wrote in the letter.
A day after the Andhra Pradesh police barged into the Nagarjunasagar dam site and occupied half of the dam spillway up to 13 of the 26 crest gates to release water from the Nagarjunasagar right canal for drinking water purpose, the KRMB authorities and Telangana state irrigation authorities reached the spot to bring the situation to normalcy.
The Telangana irrigation authorities wanted that Andhra Pradesh government withdraw its police forces as the first condition to restore normality at the dam site. “The operational control of the project has been entrusted to Telangana as part of the understanding between the two states after state bifurcation. Telangana has spent over ₹100 crore meeting the project maintenance needs so far this year,” an irrigation official said on condition of anonymity.
The KRMB authorities have suggested talks between the two states at the chief secretary-level to diffuse tension at the Nagarjuna Sagar project site.
Meanwhile, a large number of Telangana police forces, who were busy with the security arrangements for assembly elections till Thursday evening, also reached the dam site on Friday morning.
Andhra Pradesh state irrigation minister Ambati Rambabu refuted the allegations of the Telangana government that Andhra police forces had “invaded” the Nagarjunasagar dam and occupied the spillway.
“How can it be called invasion, when we took control of our own portion? Half of the dam is towards the Andhra Pradesh side and we have entered only our territory and not trespassed into the Telangana side,” Rambabu said, adding that it was well within the right of Andhra Pradesh and was totally legitimate.
The minister said while the entire dam supervision was supposed to be under the control of KRMB, the Telangana government had taken control of the entire dam and all its 26 crest gates. “As per the law, the 13 gates within our territory should not be under the control of Telangana,” he explained.
Stating that Andhra Pradesh had a share of 66% of available water in Krishna river, the minister said it had every right to utilise its share of water through the right canal located within its territory. “We are not drawing even a single drop of water from Telangana’s share. There is no need to take the permission of the Telangana government to draw our own share,” he said.
He explained that since Thursday, the state had drawn 2,000 cusecs of water from Nagarjunasagar for the drinking water needs of the people. “This is well within our rights,” Rambabu asserted.
On the timing of release of water under heavy police deployment, the minister said every state had its own strategies to protect its rights. “We too have the strategies. The assembly elections in Telangana were just a coincidence. We have absolutely no interest in Telangana politics,” he clarified.
Srinivasa Rao is Senior Assistant Editor based out of Hyderabad covering developments in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana . He has over three decades of reporting experience.
AP should stop drawing water from river: Board – Hindustan Times
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