Karnataka assures water for Jurala Project

Hyderabad: Telangana Tourism Minister Jupally Krishna Rao on Wednesday said Karnataka Chief Minister D K Shivakumar responded positively to the request to release water from the Almatty and Narayanpur reservoirs to save crops in downstream Telangana.

Telangana Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy thanked Shivakumar for acceding to his government’s request to release Krishna river water. “This is a great example of bonhomie between two different states and showcases the love and brotherhood of people of India,” Revanth Reddy said in a post on X.

On Wednesday, Krishna Rao, state Sports Minister Vakiti Srihari and several ruling Congress MLAs from Telangana met Shivakumar in Bengaluru for the second time in two days and urged him to release water. The delegation apprised Shivakumar of the water shortage and the current status of crops in Mahabubnagar district, which borders Karnataka.

The Karnataka CM responded positively to the request and directed his government officials to take steps for water release, according to a release from Krishna Rao’s office. The visiting delegation met Shivakumar in Bengaluru on Tuesday evening and told him that the crops in the command area of Jurala, Nettempadu, Bhima and Koilsagar projects in Telangana were at a crucial stage and needed water for further growth.

The delegation said that crops are cultivated in about 5.5 lakh acres under the four irrigation projects and requested Karnataka to release 5,000 cusecs of water for a month to save the crops. The Telangana government’s request came amid protests by farmers in the command area of Jurala project in Jogulamba Gadwal district of Telangana, neighbouring Karnataka, demanding water release to save their crops.

While BRS held protests on September 21 on the issue, state BJP president N Ramchander Rao was stopped on September 22 while on his way to meet the farmers in Jogulamba Gadwal district. Noting that the capacity of the Jurala project is over nine TMC, Krishna Rao has earlier said about three TMC of water is in silt, while another three TMC is meant for meeting drinking water needs till the end of June, 2027.

Responding to BRS criticism, the minister sought to know why the previous BRS government did not build reservoirs for additional water storage. Separately, Sports Minister Vakiti Srihari on Wednesday instructed officials to release water from the Jurala project to help farmers in the command area. Following Srihari’s orders, water was released water from the Jurala project, an official release said.

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