Krishna river: 6.5 tmc ft allotted to AP, Telangana officials cry foul at 1.5 tmc ft

Hyderabad: Krishna River Management Board member-secretary Sameer Chatterjee on Friday issued a fresh order, allotting 6.5 tmc ft water to Andhra Pradesh and 1.5 tmc ft to Telangana state from the Nagarjunasagar dam to meet the drinking water needs of Hyderabad.

Though the three-member technical committee could not meet on Friday as scheduled, Mr Chatterjee, after obtaining letters from engineer-in-chief of both the states on their drinking water requirement, took a decision and made the allotments.

Accordingly, the water level at Srisailam dam, that was 785 ft on Friday, will drop to 775 ft and 3 tmc ft of water from dam will be released downstream to NS dam through operation of the sluice gates.

Mr Chatterjee also ordered depleting NS Dam level from existing 504.6 ft to 502 ft. All put together, 8 tmc ft of water will be available for utilisation.

The order also said that any further releases below 775 ft at Srisailam will be decided as and when requirements are indented.

Meanwhile, Telangana officials are up in arms against the KRMB member-secretary for allotting more water to AP and denying the same quantity to TS, despite a complaint from TS about excess utilisation by AP. Nagarjunasagar dam chief engineer S. Suneel, to whom KRMB served the release order, is consulting the TS government whether to implement the orders or not.