Hyderabad: With inflows into Srisailam dam reservoir increasing by the day, the Telangana and AP state governments and public representatives from various regions have started demanding their share of water for their respective areas.
The Krishna River Management Board, the regulatory body constituted under the AP Reorganisation Act, will have its three-day meetings starting from Monday. Andhra Pradesh irrigation minister Devineni Uma Maheswara Rao told this newspaper on Sunday evening that the two representatives who take part in the KRMB meetings will demand immediate release of waters to all the irrigation projects in Rayalaseema and Coastal Andhra.
“Kharif is already delayed, but we can still can go for short-and medium-duration varieties of crops if water is released now. Our two representatives will insist on this,” Mr Maheswara Rao said.
He said it is high time to supplement releases to Krishna delta which is thirsting for water. His Telangana counterpart T. Harish Rao told this newspaper that the TS government would demand that the KRMB release water for the Nagarjunasagar dam left canal, Alimeneti Madhav Reddy lift scheme, besides various projects in Mahbubnagar district.
“We have projects covered under assured irrigation so top priority to be given to our projects,” Mr Harish Rao said. Meanwhile, in a related development, Nandyala MLA and YSRC leader Bhuma Nagireddy has already demanded that the Srisailam dam authorities release waters to Telugu Ganga and Srisailam right bank canal projects.
He pointed out that the water level at Srisailam had touched 850 ft, sufficient to release it to the Pothireddypadu Head Regulator. He said, “Like other projects, both TGP and SRBC got assured quota of waters from the Krishna Tribunal. There is no point in releasing water to the Nagarjunasagar dam from Srisailam in the name of power generation and deny release to Rayalaseema projects. This would clearly be injustice.”
Meanwhile, there is rise in outflows from Tungabhadra dam in Karnataka, touching almost two lakh cusecs. This is expected to reach Srisailam dam by Monday. The steady pattern in outflows from Jurala dam in the range of 1.5 lakh cusecs is improving the level at the Srisailam dam.
