HYDERABAD: Telangana and Andhra Pradesh have accused each other of taking up new projects without prior clearances or permissions. The trading of charges was made at a meeting convened by the Godavari River Management Board (GRMB) here on Friday.AP officials questioned the construction of Kaleshwaram lift irrigation project without obtaining permissions and without informing the GRMB. However, TS officials pointed out that Kaleshwaram was not a new project but an old one which was sanctioned before the bifurcation of the State.
Telangana officials, on the other hand, accused AP of taking up the construction of Pattiseema project without permission and without informing the board. The fifth meeting of GRMB was chaired by new chairman HK Sahu. As Sahu was the new incumbent, AP and TS raised Kaleshwaram and Pattiseema projects respectively. Then Sahu asked the two State governments to upload the data of completed, ongoing and new projects in the Godavari basin on GRMB’s website.
“The website of GRMB was readied by NIC and the user IDs will be provided to the employees of the respective states. The officials can upload the information directly on GRMB website,” Sahu said after the meeting.
He said the board wanted AP to submit the Detailed Project Report (DPR) on Pattiseema at the board’s next meeting. “The DPR will run into several huge volumes. AP provided some volumes and assured to submit the other volumes shortly,” he said, adding that the TS government informed him that Kaleshwaram was not a new project as it had been sanctioned earlier.
Meanwhile, the board sanctioned 25 posts for better functioning and the required staff could be drawn from CWC, AP and TS. “We sought the comments of both the states on the draft working manual of the board within 10 days. If there are no objections from the states, we will notify the working manual,” Sahu said. The logo of the GRMB was almost finalised and it would be released soon, he disclosed.