Financial crunch hits Krishna River Board salaries

Hyderabad: The Krishna River Management Board 0ous concern over the Andhra Pradesh and Telangana governments. In a letter, the Board noted that funds have not been released by the Andhra Pradesh and Telangana governments during the last three quarters.

The KRMB informed the Engineers-in-Chief (Irrigation) of both states that no funds have been released during the past three quarters of the 2025–26 financial year.

As a result, the Board is struggling to pay salaries to its staff. “The Board has been facing an acute financial crisis, even in meeting salary expenditure. Salaries are being paid by temporarily diverting the available Rs 4.15 crore meant for Telangana under Telemetry Phase-2.” It may be noted that Phase-1 telemetry is under AMC till March 31, 2027, and the current financial year involves an AMC liability of about Rs 23.30 lakh.

During the 19th Board meeting, the Telangana government proposed installing 11 new telemetry locations under Phase-2. The KRMB chairman suggested forming a committee comprising officials from both states to oversee the project. However, the proposal was not approved by the Andhra Pradesh government.