The State government, in a letter to the Krishna River Management Board, on Saturday raised its indent of utilising 27 tmcft of Krishna water from Srisailam for drinking and irrigation purposes in Rayalaseema and Chennai, and has requested the board to adjust 82.40 tmcft utilised “unauthorisedly” by Telangana for power generation recently without any indent for drinking or irrigation needs.
In the letter written to the KRMB Member-Secretary, Engineering-in-Chief (Irrigation) C. Narayana Reddy said the Telangana government had utilised 43.25 tmcft from Srisailam reservoir, 27.23 tmcft from Nagarjunasagar Project, and 11.92 tmcft from Pulichintala for power generation without any indent, intimation, or release order from the KRMB. He requested the board to account for this quantity against its agreed share of 299 tmcft.
The official opined that considering the ad hoc arrangement to share water in 66:34 ratio by A.P. and Telangana, the utilisation of 82.40 tmcft by Telangana gave the right to A.P. to use 160 tmcft for its drinking and irrigation needs. Of the 27 tmcft indent placed by Andhra Pradesh, 3 tmcft was for Chennai’s drinking water, 7 tmcft for Telugu Ganga, 8 tmcft for the SRBC / GNNS, 2 tmcft for KC Canal assistance, and 7 tmcft for HNSS.
The flow into Srisailam is expected to be over 4 lakh cusecs, hence release order has been sought for drawal of water from Pothireddypadu Head Regulator and lifting of water through HNSS for Rayalaseema.