HYDERABAD: The three-member committee of the Krishna River Management Board (KRMB), which met here on Friday, discussed the indents placed by Telangana for 95 tmcft and Andhra Pradesh for 108 tmcft for rabi crop and summer drinking water needs. However, the water release order was not issued.
AP Engineer-in-Chief C Narayana Reddy and Telangana Engineer V Narasimha, among others, attended the meeting. On supplying drinking water to Chennai, the AP officials demanded that two-thirds share be accounted for in Andhra’s share and the remaining in Telangana’s. However, the TS officials said this formula should be implemented for up to 5 tmcft water supplied to Chennai. Anything over 5 tmcft, should be entirely from AP’s share, they said.
While TS argued that the transmission losses under the Nagarjunasagar project would be 44 per cent, AP felt that it was just 27 per cent. The Telangana officials also differed with their AP counterparts’ argument that it diverted 18 tmcft water during the flood season from Pattiseema to the Krishna Delta.
Finally, AP agreed to include 18 tmcft water in the Krishna water share. The water utilisation under the Kurnool-Kadapa canal, floodwaters, and carryover water were also discussed at the meeting.The AP officials wanted to take the 800-ft level at Srisailam and 510 ft at Nagarjunasagar into consideration while sharing Krishna water to both the States. But Telanagna demanded that the water should not be shared below the minimum draw down level (MDDL) at both the projects. It should be done keeping in mind the needs of the State up to March-end only, said the officials from Telangana.
KRMB to be shifted to Visakhapatnam
Speaking to presspersons, Narayana Reddy said if Telangana failed to utilise its share of water fully in any year, the balance cannot be carried over to the next year. Also, the KRMB office would be shifted to Visakhapatnam. The official added that it was not correct to say the office would be located outside the Krishna river basin. He said that the GRMB office was in the Krishna river basin.