Hyderabad: The Telangana and AP governments on Thursday reached an accord on storing water in the Pulichintala Dam, the terminal reservoir built on Krishna river. The Chief Secretaries of both the states, Mr Rajiv Sharma and I.Y.R. Krishna Rao had a meeting with officials and resolved the dispute. The meeting was necessitated by the submergence of four villages in the Mellacheruvu mandal of Nalgonda district in Telangana because of the waters stored in the Pulichintala Dam in AP after the recent heavy outflow from the upstream Nagarjunasagar project.
Adluru, Wajanepally, Krishnapuram and Nemalipudi are the four villages which faced havoc from the waters in the last five days which forced the Pulichintala authorities to reduce storage. At the meeting AP agreed to immediately release Rs 30 crore to the Telangana government for taking up rehabilitation in the villages submerged by the waters of Pulichintala. It was also agreed to limit storage at Pulichintala to 7.5 tmcft this year to avoid submergence of villages. AP can store 11 tmcft of water only after rehabilitation of the people living in the four villages. Till then only 7.5 tmcft water will be stored, Telangana CS Rajiv Sharma said.
“We will release the Rs 127 crore for the RR package in Nalgonda district in phases to build up the storage in Pulichintala to 45 tmcft. Today we have decided to release Rs 30 crore,” AP Chief Secretary I.Y.R. Krishna Rao said. Though Pulichitala aam envisages a total storage of 45 tmcft to ensure timely release of waters to the Krishna delta for raising paddy seedbeds in May every year, engineering experts have suggested to limit the storage to 11 tmcft as this is the first year of the newly built structure. However today it was agreed to limit it to only 7.5 tmcft to avoid submergence of villages in Nalgonda.
