Tension prevails at Nagarjunasagar as A.P. draws water unilaterally, TG retaliates

Tension prevailed at the Nagarjunasagar dam site in Nalgonda district on Wednesday afternoon as Andhra Pradesh released 2,000 cusecs of water to the Right Canal serving A.P. without any approval of the Krishna River Management Board (KRMB), despite objections raised by Telangana.

As the A.P. authorities/engineers were adamant, the Telangana officials too started releasing water to the Left Canal as a move of retaliation. It was only on August 24 that a three-member committee of the river board met here but could not make a decision on sharing and release of water and decided to meet again on September 4.

According to sources in the Telangana Irrigation Department, they were forced to release water to the Left Canal since A.P. authorities released water to the Right Canal unilaterally and illegally, overlooking the objections of Telangana. The instances of high-handedness of the A.P. authorities were umpteen in the past too. As at 9 p.m. on Wednesday, A.P. was drawing 4,050 cusecs for Right Canal and Telangana was drawing 1,580 cusecs for Left Canal.

The Nagarjunasagar reservoir had 181.3 tmc ft of water against its full capacity of 312 tmc ft as on Wednesday evening. The A.P. authorities were also drawing huge quantities of water from Srisailam from Pothireddypadu Head Regulator and Handri-Neeva pumping system to take the water to the outside basin areas, even before the common reservoir became surplus, the sources said.

Meanwhile, the Opposition Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) has taken strong exception to the Congress government’s failure to protect Telangana’s river water interests, particularly in the El Nino year. Former minister for Irrigation and Deputy Floor Leader in the Assembly T. Harish Rao observed that the State government appeared to be powerless before A.P. as it had disregarded KRMB.

“Isn’t it the high-handedness of A.P. officials to draw water without the approval of the KRMB and despite the fact that the project is under the management of Telangana”, Mr. Harish Rao asked. He stated that A.P. had asked for 47 tmc ft water from Nagarjunasagar, and the matter was to be discussed and decided by the three-member committee. He questioned the silence of KRMB and the Telangana government.

He alleged that A.P. was taking 11 tmc ft water from Srisailam through Veligonda project tunnels in addition to drawal from PRP-HR, Handri-Neeva pumping station. He demanded immediate intervention of the KRMB to stop A.P. drawing water illegally and requested Union Minister G. Kishan Reddy to take up the matter with Minister of Jal Shakti immediately.