Telangana mellows on water row; stops power generation at Nagarjunasagar dam
HYDERABAD: The Telangana state government finally stopped hydel power generation at Nagarjunasagar on its own on Saturday. It had earlier directed TS Genco to generate hydel power at all projects over the Krishna up to 100 per cent of installed capacity. Hydel generation continues at the Jurala, Srisailam and Pulichantala projects.
Following this, TS Genco started hydel power generation at Nagarjunasagar from June 29. It produced 30 million units in 11 days till July 9. This triggered a row over utilisation of Krishna water between Andhra Pradesh and Telangana state.
The AP government strongly opposed the hydel power generation, arguing that it was leading to depletion of water in the Krishna river projects and pushing AP into a irrigation and drinking water crisis.
The AP government dashed off several letters to Union Jal Shakti ministry and Krishna River Management Board (KRMB) urging them to direct the Telangana state government to stop hydel power generation. Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy even wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi twice complaining against the TS government in the past 10 days. The KRMB too asked the TS government to stop hydel power generation.
Despite all this, the TS government refused to stop and continued hydel power generation all these days. But on Saturday, it stopped power generation all of a sudden. Though no reasons were cited officially for this, it is learnt that the decision was taken to ease tension with AP over Krishna water sharing after the KRMB agreed to cancel the three-member meeting on July 9 and instead hold a full-body meeting after July 20 as demanded by the Telangana government.
It is learnt that the KRMB has decided to hold full-body meeting on July 24 to resolve Krishna water dispute between Andhra Pradesh and Telangana state.
