Operational control of Srisailam reservoir should be handed over to T'gana: KCR
Hyderabad: Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao said that every State of the Indian Union has a constitutional right to get a fair and equitable allocation of river waters. He said that even after seven years of its formation, Telangana State is still waiting to know its legitimate share of waters. KCR demanded to know the reason for such injustice to a legitimate right of the State of Telangana, and requested Government of India to take immediate steps to address this matter in a time bound manner.
KCR also requested that Government of India should issue immediate direction to the neighbouring Andhra Pradesh state to stop work on expansion of Pothireddipadu regulator and construction of Rayalaseema Lift Irrigation Scheme. CM further requested that in order to enforce this, the operational control of Srisailam reservoir should be handed over to Telangana immediately.
In a strongly worded letter addressed to Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, Union Minister for Jalshakthi, on Friday, KCR detailed each and every aspect pertaining to river waters since the days of united Andhra Pradesh and perennial injustice done to Telangana Area.
Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao raised quite a few pertinent issues relating to the fair and equitable share of waters in Krishna and Godavari rivers to Telangana State and requested the Union minister, to include them as agenda items of the Meeting of the Apex Council scheduled to be held on October 6, 2020.
Instances of injustice meted out to Telangana in sharing Krishna water in the erstwhile state of Andhra Pradesh have been detailed one after another. They are: Scrapping of Upper Krishna Project with utilisation of 54.4 TMC, Bhima project with utilisation of 100.7 TMC and Tungabhadra left bank canal with utilisation of 19.2 TMC.
"Even, the location of Nagarjunasagar Dam was shifted 19 Kilometres downstream from Yelleshwaram to Nandikonda, to the disadvantage of Telangana in terms of loss of command area. The injustices meted out to Telangana in the combined State were recorded by the Bachawat Award," mentioned KCR.
Referring to the earlier instances where Telangana Government brought to the notice of Government of India on the injustices, KCR said: "A complaint was made to the Ministry of Water Resources on July 14, 2014 itself, immediately after the formation of the State asking for an equitable allocation of Krishna waters. Subsequently, several reminders have been sent on the subject to the Government of India. A letter by me was sent to the Prime Minister on December 26, 2018 and raised this issue on multiple occasions during our meetings."
Referring to Pothireddipadu, KCR voiced strong objections to the taking up of expansion of Pothireddipadu Head Regulator and the newly proposed Rayalaseema Lift Irrigation Scheme by the Government of Andhra Pradesh. Telangana CM said that the original project itself is completely illegal as it has no water allocation, no approval by any statutory authority, and is meant to send water outside Krishna Basin. The Krishna River is intended to meet the needs of water of the parched areas of Telangana such as Mahbubnagar, Nalgonda, Ranga Reddy and Hyderabad districts, some of which are also suffering from excess fluoride content in drinking water. Quoting the Bachawat Award, KCR has emphasized the need to first fulfil the in-basin needs.
Though the Rayalaseema Lift Irrigation Scheme was never sanctioned by any statutory body, Andhra Pradesh has proposed to lift 3 TMC per day from the bottom of Srisailam reservoir and transport it to the Pennar and adjoining basins. Andhra Pradesh has gone ahead with the finalisation of tenders for the work despite strong objections as well as the orders given by KRMB not to proceed with the Project, said KCR.
If Andhra Pradesh is allowed to go ahead with their nefarious and illegitimate expansion plans of Pothireddipadu now, there will be no water available to meet the requirements of existing projects in Telangana including the drinking water needs of the capital city Hyderabad which is very much within Krishna Basin, said KCR and requested the Union minister to direct the AP Government to immediately stop these diversions.
CM KCR highlighted the consistent failures of KRMB as a regulatory body which includes its inaction on Pothireddipadu by remaining as a mute spectator in spite of repeated complaints by his government.
KCR said "we are also shocked by the instructions given by KRMB to stop releases of water from Srisailam Left Bank Power House. Srisailam is a Hydro-Electric project with a provision of 33 TMC for evaporation losses as per the Bachawat Award. Water is released from the Srisailam reservoir to generate hydro-electric power on the way of its flow to Nagarjunasagar to meet the irrigation requirements of 6 lakh acres of ayacut and drinking water needs of over 1 crore population."
