Telangana has strongly opposed the Andhra Pradesh bid to press for immediate shifting of the Krishna River Management Board (KRMB) office from Hyderabad to Amaravati on the ground that there is no necessity to shift it till the water sharing between the two States is decided by the Brijesh Kumar Tribunal.
However, there was consensus between the irrigation officials of the two States at the board meeting held here on Friday to continue the existing arrangement of water sharing in the ratio of 66:34 between AP and Telangana and also to complete the installation of telemetry equipment at all agreed upon locations in two phases at the earliest.
Sources stated that it was also decided to have a three-member committee meeting next week to decide on the water indents of the two States for the next one month. Board Chairman R.K. Gupta suggested that indents for a month each could be decided first and after having a fair assessment of water availability this year it could be decided on for more than a month, Telangana submitted its indent of 102 tmc ft for 3 months and AP for 38 tmc ft for one month.
When contacted, Special Chief Secretary (Revenue) Somesh Kumar, who is also officiating as Principal Secretary (Irrigation), told The Hindu that they had strongly opposed the proposal to shift the KRMB office till the share of waters between the two States was decided. “We have also requested the board to allocate higher share of available water to Telangana following the diversion of Godavari waters to Krishna basin for the last couple of years,” he stated.
It was highlighted that there was a provision of higher allocation of water to the upper riparian States in the event of a lower riparian State diverting water from the other river basin and that it was there in the two tribunal awards. The issues of budgetary provisions to the board and deputation of staff by the two States were also discussed at the meeting.
Later, in the Godavari River Board Meeting (GRMB), AP officials proposed installation of telemetry in the Godavari basin two but Telangana was said to have opposed it stating that it was unnecessary expenditure since huge volumes, an average of about 2,000 tmc ft, of water was flowing waste into the sea every year.