Pothireddypadu: Centre steps in to contain Jal Vivad between Andhra and Telangana

Hyderabad: The Ministry of Jal Shakti on Saturday directed the Government of Andhra Pradesh not to proceed with the works on Pothireddypadu head regulator and the proposed lift irrigation scheme. Taking note of the objections raised by Telangana BJP president Bandi Sanjay, Union Minister for Jal Shakti Gajendra Singh Shekhawat directed officials to immediately call for a meeting of the apex council to discuss the proposals of the Government.

The Union Minister asked the KRMB to examine whether the detailed project report of the Government of Andhra Pradesh was in tune with the provisions of the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act 2014 or not. It may be mentioned here that the Andhra Pradesh government had issued GO No 203 on May 5 proposing to lift 7 tmc ft of water from Pothireddypadu head regulator and another 3 tmc ft from Sangameswaram which is 4 km away from Pothireddypadu. As per the GO issued by AP Irrigation Department Special Principal Secretary Adityanath Das, administrative sanction was given for Rayalaseema Lift Irrigation Scheme to lift 7 tmc ft from Srisailam reservoir and 3 tmc ft every day from Sangameswaram.

This water will be taken to SRMC (Srisailam Right Main Canal) at a cost of Rs 3,825 crore.

Similarly, the project capacity of Pothireddypadu head regulator will also be increased to match the increasing water inflow, and Rs 570.45 crore has been allocated for capacity augmentation. Taking strong exception to this the Telangana State government lodged a complaint with the KRM board and requested it to initiate action for violating the guidelines mentioned in the AP Reorganisation Act in the construction of new projects on Godavari and Krishna rivers. This issue had raised a political storm with the opposition charging the TRS government of agreeing to this proposal of Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy during the meeting of the two chief ministers. They said following that Jagan had called his counterpart K Chandrasekhar Rao as a man who had shown magnanimity. But KCR and TRS leaders and ministers denied this. They said it was the opposition parties like Congress and BJP which do not have a common stand on this issue. While the TS units of these two parties were opposing the project here, the leaders of AP units were supporting it.

KCR even said that the government would approach the Supreme Court to save the interests of Telangana. On the other hand, the Andhra Pradesh government said that they were constructing the project within their jurisdiction and would be utilising water that has been allocated to them. They also questioned TS government saying that why it did not take the approval of apex council for the Palamuru- Ranga Reddy project which harms the interests of Andhra Pradesh.