HYDERABAD: Telangana government on Friday urged the Ministry of Jal Shakti not to provide Accelerated Irrigation Benefits Programme (AIBP) funds to unapproved Veligonda project of Andhra Pradesh.
In a letter to the Jal Shakti Ministry, the Telangana Irrigation engineer-in-chief C Muralidhar said that Veligonda project was taken up by AP based on surplus waters of river Krishna and does not have any clearance of Central Water Commission (CWC).
"It is shown as unapproved project in schedule-2 of the gazette notification issued by the Jal Shakti Ministry. There is no allocation of water to this project by Bachawat Tribunal. Veligonda envisages diversion of Krishna water to other basins and is being vehemently opposed by the Telangana before Brijesh Kumar Tribunal," Muralidhar said. He wanted the Ministry of Jal Shakti to think whether it was correct to provide funds under AIBP for the unapproved Veligonda or not.
"It is learnt that Veligonda project of AP is being considered in the list of projects for funding under PMKSY-AIBP during the period 2021-26. It is also learnt that physical monitoring of this proposed project is to be completed by August 27, 2021 and report to be made available by September 3, 2021," Muralidhar said in his letter.