HYDERABAD: Ahead of the key meeting of the
Krishna River Management Board (KRMB) on October 16 to decide allocation of Krishna water,
Telangana and
Andhra Pradesh renewed their water war with the TRS government claiming it utilised only 24% of the water allocated to it, while the latter charged the former with unauthorisedly drawing from the powerhouse of Srisailam project.
AP engineer-in-chief,
irrigation, M Venkateshwar Rao wrote a letter to member-secretary, KRMB, on Tuesday stating that in the current water year, the quantum of drawls by AP and Telangana from powerhouses of Srisailam reservoir were not equal. “While AP has drawn 82.15tmc from the Srisailam right bank powerhouse, Telangana has drawn 123tmc during the same period from the left bank powerhouse,” he said in the letter.
However, Telangana irrigation authorities dismissed the claims and retorted that AP had in fact utilised 75% of its allocated water for the year and 10% more than the KRMB orders for this season. “We have utilised only 24% of the allocated water as per KRMB orders. As per the orders, the state can utilise 82tmcs but we used only 34tmc. The balance of 48tmc can still be used,” a senior official said.