HYDERABAD: The Godavari River Management Board (GRMB) has asked the Telangana government to immediately furnish its views and detailed reports (DPRs) on the projects that were recently questioned by the Andhra Pradesh government. GRMB member PS Kutiyal wrote to Principal Secretary (Irrigation) Rajat Kumar on Wednesday in this regard.
AP Irrigation Special Chief Secretary Aditya Nath Das recently lodged a complaint with the board on nine projects — Kaleshwaram Lift Irrigation Scheme (KLIS), GLIS phase-3, Sita Rama Lift Irrigation Scheme, Tupakulagudem, Telangana Drinking Water Supply Project, three barrages on the Lower Penganga river — Rajupet (Bhimkund), Chanaka-Korata and Pimparad-Parsoda — and the Ramappa to Pakhal Lake diversion.
Andhra Pradesh also alleged that Telangana enhanced the utilisation under the KLIS from 225 tmcft to 450 tmcft, and from 70 tmcft to 100 tmcft under the Sita Rama Lift Irrigation Scheme.
In its complaint, AP submitted the water utilisation under the existing, ongoing, future and new projects taken up by both the sibling States from the Godavari. It also stated that there was hardly any water for projects to be taken up by them under 75 per cent dependability.
“The projects questioned by the AP government in its letter were discussed at the GRMB meeting in August, 2019. In the light of discussions held at the meeting, the details of the projects are still to be made available to the GRMB by Telangana,” the GRMB member wrote to the Telangana Irrigation Principle Secretary.
It may be recalled that Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy had attended the inauguration of the KLIS — one of the nine projects against which the AP official complained about — as a chief guest. But, Jagan later clarified in the AP Assembly that Kaleshwaram was actually completed when N Chandrababu Naidu was chief minister.