HYDERABAD: Telangana Engineer-in-Chief C Muralidhar on Thursday requested the Krishna River Management Board (KRMB) to restrain Andhra Pradesh from executing the unauthorised Veligonda project and adding new components to it, which was intended to divert Krishna river waters outside the river basin.
In a letter to the KRMB chairman, Muralidhar said the Veligonda project would be detrimental to the interests of Telangana projects, which is serving acute drought-prone and fluoride-affected in-basin areas apart from the settled ayacuts of the Nagarjuna Sagar Project command downstream of Srisailam project and the drinking water needs of Hyderabad city.
“More than 85% of the cultivable area in Mahbubnagar and Rangareddy districts is without assured water supply. The erstwhile Mahbubnagar and Rangareddy districts have 100% and 84% areas are drought-prone areas, respectively,” Muralidhar said.
He recalled that KCR had opposed the illegal and unauthorised diversions to the outside basin and requested the Union Jal Shakti minister to take immediate and effective action to stop the diversion of Krishna waters through Srisailam reservoir.