Telangana junks Andhra Pradesh’s water depletion claims

HYDERABAD: Not one to lie low in the face of a fusillade from Andhra Pradesh, the Telangana government on Sunday dashed off a strongly worded letter to the Krishna River Management Board (KRMB), rebutting the neighbouring State’s contention that hydel power generation by Telangana at Srisailam would affect its drinking and irrigation requirements.

Describing Andhra Pradesh’s logic as being “far from reality, misleading and without any justification,” Telangana Engineer-in-Chief C Muralidhar, in the letter, said that the State would utilise its share of water as it likes and that the Andhra Pradesh government should not have any objection to it.

He pointed out that the Planning Commission had given clearance to the Srisailam Hydro Electric Project (HEP) in 1963 and as per its estimate, about 265 tmcft water could be released from Srisailam HEP to Nagarjuna Sagar for its needs.

“The Andhra Pradesh government did not maintain Srisailam’s reservoir level above 834 feet from 1990-91 to 2019-20 in the months of April and May. Now, it wants to maintain the 854-foot level to enable diversion of Krishna water outside the basin. This goes against the against the Bachawat Tribunal allocations,” said Muralidhar.