KRMB ends water row for now, awards 9 tmc to TS & 16 tmc to AP

HYDERABAD: Putting an end to the ‘illegal’ water drawal row, albeit temporarily, three-member committee of the Krishna River Management Board (KRMB) on Friday allowed Telangana and Andhra Pradesh to draw water from Krishna river for meeting the drinking water needs of the two states. As per KRMB’s decision, Telangana will get 9 tmc while AP will get 16 tmc for the next one and half months. 
Telangana will get 5 tmc for Kalwakurthy from Srisailam and 2 tmc for Hyderabad and Nalgonda districts each from Nagarjuna Sagar.

“For this, we have to release 16 tmc from Srisailam project to Nagarjuna Sagar project,” KRMB member-secretary Samir Chatterjee said. Meanwhile, AP will get 5 tmc for Handri-Neeva Sujala Sravanthi and 5 tmc from Pothireddypadu project for Rayalaseema region. AP will get another 6 tmc from right canal of Nagarjuna Sagar Project to meet drinking water needs of Guntur and Prakasam districts. Chatterjee said that in Friday’s meeting it had also been decided to maintain a level of 510 feet at Nagarjuna Sagar and over 854 feet at Srisailam. 

The sibling states have been at loggerheads for the past week with Telangana alleging that AP was ‘unilaterally’ drawing Krishna waters. Chatterjee said a full board meeting would be held after October 15 to take stock of the matter. “We will sort out the issues,” he averred. “We will assess the available water in Krishna after the completion of monsoon. Then, we will decide on further release of water,” Chatterjee said. In Friday’s meeting, AP pressed their indent of 17 tmc, which they had already been submitted to KRMB. TS had asked for 40 tmc of water to  meet drinking water needs of Mahbubnagar, Nagarkurnool, Nalgonda and Hyderabad. 

Board pleads helplessness 
Faced with charges of bias towards Andhra Pradesh, levelled by Telangana, on the matter of ‘unilateral’ drawal of water from Krishna river, the board said that it had limited powers and could not control the actions of the states.