AP asked Telangana not to use up the water at the two dams for power generation
Telangana says it has no other alternative but to use water in Srisailam and Nagarjunasagar dams as it has to meet the power demand, especially to the agricultural sector in view of the huge gap between demand and supply. (Photo: DC/File)
Hyderabad: Andhra Pradesh and Telangana governments are embroiled in a fresh controversy over releasing water for power generation by the latter from the Srisailam and Nagarjunasagar dams.
AP irrigation minister Devineni Uma Maheswara Rao spoke to his Telangana counterpart T. Harish Rao and requested not to use up the water at the two dams for power generation keeping in view the future needs in coming months.
However, Mr Harish Rao made it clear that Andhra Pradesh has no right to make such a request while denying power that is due to Telangana. The AP government has also formally conveyed its protest and lodged a complaint with the Krishna River Management Board constituted by the Centre for the purpose.
Telangana says it has no other alternative but to use water in Srisailam and Nagarjunasagar dams as it has to meet the power demand, especially to the agricultural sector in view of the huge gap between demand and supply.
Whatever the valid reasons from the two governments over release of water or not to release water, the water level at Srisailam Dam has reached to 861 ft with only 112 TMC ft capacity on Saturday.
The entire Rayalaseema’s water needs including drinking water supplies to Chennai are tagged to releases from Srisailam Dam through Pothireddypadu head regulator which cannot draw water from the dam if the level is below 854 ft.
The KRMB which is supposed to monitor all the releases from Krishna River based projects has not yet issued any strict guidelines for regulation of waters. The AP government on Saturday instructed dam officials to stop power generation from the Right side Power House ( 770 MW) to save water from its side. However Telangana government is continuing power generation from Left Bank Power House (900 MW) by releasing 4 TMC ft of water every day from the quota of waters allotted to it.
The released waters are reaching downstream Nagarjunasagar Dam, where again the Telangana government is generating power (880 MW) and releasing waters to downstream Krishna delta system. In fact the operation schedules of dams clearly indicate that waters should be released to power houses only for the purpose of meeting irrigation demands otherwise it should not.
“We informed the KRMB about this, we may not require waters for Krishna delta needs as of now due to local rains, if Telangana government goes on releasing waters from Nagarjunasagar Dam we may have to allow it to go to the sea, which is not at all good. Similarly, Rayalaseema’s future needs particularly for the summer season is dependent on Srisailam Dam levels. If water is depleted for the sake of power generation we cannot send a single drop into Pothireddypadu regulator. Telangana government should help us in impounding more water at Srisailam,” AP government principal secretary to Irrigation Adityanath Das told this correspondent.
However Telangana government brushed aside the argument. “Still there is a gap of over 20 MU in meeting power demand in Telangana, we cannot increase load relief measures further as we have been doing more already. AP is not supplying our share of power from Krishnapatnam, lower Sileru and Simhadri NTPC unit. They don’t give us power yet they want to blame us. We did not get sufficient rains; agricultural demand is more here. Till the month end we are committed to supply to agriculture as all crops are in an advance stage. AP’s argument on Srisailam does not hold good. We are entitled to use our share of waters and we are using by generating power. All commitments of AP on Pothireddypadu regulator have already been met except a small quantity required for Srisailam Right Branch Canal. They cannot claim water from regulator now for the projects based on surplus waters. There is no surplus at Srisailam, so they cannot claim now. Similarly at Nagarjunasagar Dam also we need to produce power for our needs, if at all we have to stop generating hydel power simultaneously we have to increase power cuts in Telangana. Instead of AP requesting us to stop water releases why cannot they give the power from their units for which we are entitled? They don’t want to give power yet they want us not to generate power. It is not fair,” said Mr Harish Rao.
( Source : dc correspondent )
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