HYDERABAD: Telangana irrigation officials once again made it crystal clear that the State would not hand over irrigation projects on the Godavari, except Peddavagu, to the Godavari River Management Board (GRMB).
Participating in the GRMB sub-committee meeting held here on Monday, the officials informed the Board that they had raised their objections in the 12th meeting of the Board about the inclusion of some projects in the gazette notification of the Jal Shakti Ministry.
“We have already written to the Board as well as Jal Shakti Ministry with a request to delete some projects from Schedule-2 of the Gazette Notification and include them in Schedule-3. But, there has been no response on the same till date,” TS officials pointed out.
OSD to CM (Irrigation), Sridhar Rao Deshpande and Executive Engineer Subramanyam Prasad participated in the meeting from Telangana.
Though the GRMB sub-committee included three projects of TS and five projects of AP in Monday’s agenda for discussion and handing over to the board, the meeting discussed only the Medigadda barrage and pump house of TS and Venkatanagaram pump house of AP. Andhra Pradesh officials agreed to hand over the Venkatanagaram pump house.
Upset with GRMB attitude
TS officials said that they were not going to discuss any other project, as they were committed to hand over only Peddavagu, an inter-State project.
TS officials also found fault with the GRMB for unilaterally preparing the handing over notes, without involving the subcommittee members. “Place all the issues relating to handing over of the projects in the full Board meeting and involve the sub-committee members in preparing the handing over notes,” TS officials demanded.