VIJAYAWADA: Tension prevailed at Nagarjuna Sagar Project on Guntur-Nalgonda border when arguments ensued between irrigation officials of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana State over the release of water to Nagarjuna Sagar Right Canal in Andhra Pradesh.
With Telangana State irrigation department officials stopping the release of water to NSRC,their Andhra Pradesh counterparts rushed to the site and demanded water to be released.
When Telangana officials refused to oblige, they resorted to arguments which led to escalating tensions. Police were deployed in large number on both sides.
Andhra Pradesh has been drawing water to NSRC from the project as per the allocations made by the Krishna River Management Board (KRMB) in April last week. Andhra Pradesh was allocated 5.6 TMC of water to meet its drinking water requirements in Guntur and Prakasam districts.
According to NSRC officials, Telangana Irrigation officials wanted the water from NS project to be pumped out to meet Hyderabad’s water needs.
“We have already drawn 4 TMC and there is just another 1.6 TMC that is needs to be drawn. It would only take another three days at 7,000 cusecs for getting it. They have asked us to stop drawing water from NSP for three days last night and before we could answer, they stopped the release,” explained S Venkataramana Rao, superintending engineer of NSRC.
With continuing stalemate over the release of water to NSRC, Andhra Pradesh officials lodged a complaint with KRMB and are now awaiting its decision.