Vijayawada: The Krishna River Management Board had decided to write letters to the central government and Bajaj Committee to release water to the downstream projects of AP and Telangana to meet the drinking water needs as the Karnataka Projects had sufficient water.
At the KRMB’s sixth meeting held on Tuesday at a private hotel in Vijayawada, the prevailing conditions in both the states was discussed with no water being released so far from upper riparian states.
Officials from both AP and Telangana had attended the meeting and expressed their views and counter-views. While addressing the media after the meeting, KRMB chairman S.K. Srivatsava and member secretary Sameer Chatterjee said that they had decided to write a letter to the centre and the Bajaj Com-mittee for equal distribution of water to downstream projects from upper riparian states. They said the main agenda of the day’s discussion was to include equal distribution of water between Telangana and Andhra Pradesh.
They said that the KRMB decided to install 29 telemetry equipments in the second phase in both AP and Telangana. They said 18 telemetry equipments were already installed so far. Telangana officials stated that they had been honouring the release order of KRMB though there have been time lapses in some instances.
KRMB Chairman Mr Srivatsava said they will take a decision on the Sagar right canal issue once it comes under the control of KRMB, as it had been an issue between both the Telugu states, with them having differences in opinions on the water division. He also said that the union government had to take a final decision on the requests of the Telugu states to form an apex committee on the water division issue.
Mr Srivastava shared that the KRMB opined that the Krishna river water should be shared equally by all states. He even mentioned that sharing water between states could be based on prorata, as mentioned in AP reorganization act, like 511 TMC's of water to AP, 299 TMC's of water to Telangana.
Earlier AP Farmers' Apex Committee members Alla Gopala Krishna, Nagarjuna Sagar left and right project committee chairmen Bhujanga Rayulu and Y Pullaiah Chowdary had met with Krishna River Board Chairman Sri Vastsava on Tuesday and submitted their opinion. They requested KRB to release water at the appropriate times as per the Brijesh Kumar Tribunal. The group also requested KRB to give the maintenance of Nagarjuna Sugar main and right canal regulator to AP as it was in Guntur. They also said that the projects of Jurala, Nagarjuna Sagar and Srisailam projects which were initiated in the combined state should be bought under Krishna River Board, with the implementation all the issues mentioned in AP Reorganization Act.
Principal Secretary of Water Resources, Government of AP Sasibushan Kumar, Engineer-in-chief M Venkateswara Rao, SPl Chief Secretary Irrigation and CAD Telangana SK Joshi and Muralidhar Engineer-in-chief participated in the discussion.
