Krishna Water Board fails to resolve dispute

• Both states did not budge an inch
• Principal Secretaries to resolve contentious issues
• TS says it will continue to generate power until Srisailam level reaches 834 ft
• AP challenges GO 233, says TS cannot generate power below 854 ft

Hyderabad: The deadlock over usage of Krishna water from Srisailam Dam could not be resolved even after a four-hour long meeting of the Krishna River Management Board headed by its chairman SKG Pandit.

The full board which has heard the arguments of both the sides told the officials that while it would examine the issue in depth and announce its decision in two days time, asked the Principal Secretaries to sit together and resolve the contentious issue.

The meeting reportedly witnessed some fireworks between the representatives of both the states. While the Andhra Pradesh side argued that the water levels at Srisailam should be maintained at 854 feet, without which it could not save the standing crops in the Rayalaseema region, officials of Telangana State said that it too has to save the standing crops under the bore wells by supplying the much needed power to the famers in the region. The farmers in the state are in a state of distress and were committing suicides and hence the requirement of power generation was more here as compared to AP. They also made it clear that in view of the acute shortage the TS was facing, the government would continue to generate power from Srisailam Left Bank Canal (SLBC).

While the AP government insisted on maintaining water level at 854 feet, the TS government maintained that it would generate hydel-power until water reaches 834 feet in the reservoir, as stipulated in GO No 233. Further, it said that AP government’s argument about scarcity of water to Rayalaseema due to hydel power generation was not correct. While rules permitted drawl of 34 TMC water to Pothireddypadu Head Regulator, AP had already taken away 60 TMC, TS officials said. Telangana’s share of Krishna river water was 136 TMC, and the state should be allowed to utilise its share of water without any objections, TS officials told the board. But, the AP irrigation officials objected to GO 233 and said it did not enable the TS government to generate power.

This GO did not supersede GO 69 and 107 which were issued authorising diversion of water for Pothireddypadu. They also said that these GOs clearly stated that power generation could not take place if the water levels were below 854 feet. The TS government told the board members that the original name of the project was Srisailam Hydro Electric Project but the Andhra Pradesh government in the past had changed it to Neelam Sanjiva Reddy project. This was a planned move to deny power to Telangana, they argued.

Meanwhile, it is learnt that the board had taken objection to the presentation which the irrigation advisor to the TS government Vidyasagar Rao wanted to make. The board, it is learnt, made it clear that only officials of the government can make a presentation and not others.