Krishna water dispute: Telangana, Andhra Pradesh deploy forces at projects as spat escalates

HYDERABAD/VIJAYAWADA: The water tussle between the Telugu States intensified on Thursday with the Andhra Pradesh officials dashing off letters to Telangana, asking it to stop generating hydel power, and the latter ignoring their request by running its units at Pulichintala, Srisailam and Nagarjuna Sagar.

Mild tension prevailed at the sites of Nagarjuna Sagar and Pulichintala projects as both the States deployed additional police forces for security. The Telangana police imposed restrictions on inter-state passengers, letting only its employees through. They conducted stringent vehicle checks on the Nagarjuna Sagar bridge.As many as 150 additional personnel of the AP police department were deployed at Nagarjuna Sagar, in addition to the existing Special Police Force. Nearly 100 personnel were deployed at Pulachintala as well.

AP officials stopped at bridge  

The AP officials tried to meet the chief engineer of TS Genco’s main powerhouse at Pylon Colony in Nagarjuna Sagar, but were thwarted at the bridge and were asked to fax their representation, which requested the TS Genco to stop power generation at the Plyon Colony powerhouse. 

While the AP officials contended that it was against the norms to generate power at the cost of irrigation requirement, the TS authorities said that the KRMB, in a recent letter to TS Genco, wanted them to stop power generation at Srisailam, unless there’s an extreme grid exigency. “We require 4,000 MW power for operating lift irrigation schemes and are experiencing power exigency,” an official said.