HYDERABAD: The row over the sharing of Krishna waters from the Nagarjuna Sagar Project (NSP) between Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, which escalated on polling day, was resolved, albeit temporarily, on Friday, with both the sibling states agreeing to hand over the maintenance of the project to Krishna River Management Board (KRMB).
The Ministry of Jal Shakti will convene a meeting on Saturday for further discussions. Both AP and Telangana agreed to maintain the status quo as on November 28 at NSP, as suggested by the Union Home Ministry. The two states also agreed to hand over the security of the project to CRPF personnel. With this, the water-sharing row has ended, for now.
It may be recalled that AP police personnel reached NSP on Thursday, erected barricades on the project and released water for the drinking needs of the people of AP.
Centre steps in after TS officials file case on AP counterparts
Objecting to this move, Telangana officials filed a case against their AP counterparts on Friday. Telangana police also filed a case against their AP counterparts stating that the latter forcefully entered Telangana and also damaged the NSP gates Nos. 13 to 26. The AP officials released water from the right canal without permission, the complaint said.
Meanwhile, TS Irrigation engineer-in-chief C Muralidhar lodged a complaint with the KRMB stating that the AP drew the water without the permission of the Board. Responding to the complaint, KRMB member-secretary DM Rajpure directed AP to stop the release of water from the right canal.
The board secretary said that Andhra Pradesh had raised an indent of 15 tmcft from Nagarjuna Sagar reservoir and KRMB had agreed to this on the basis of the recommendation of a three-member committee and issued the release order. Andhra Pradesh wanted these releases in three separate slots - October 10 to October 20, 2023- (5 tmcft), January 8 to January 18, 2024 (5 tmcft) and April 8 to April 18, 2024 (5 tmcft).
The demand of AP for five tmcft for October was met and the rest of the demands were to be met in January and April 2024, the KRMB said. The KRMB added that the board had not received any revised indent from Andhra Pradesh for the release of water in November or December.
Later in the evening, Union Home Secretary Ajay Kumar Bhalla held a videoconference with the chief secretaries and DGPs of AP and TS on the NSP row. The KRMB officials too attended the meeting.
Telangana Chief Secretary Santhi Kumari informed the Union home secretary that around 500 police from AP reached NSP, damaged the CCT V cameras and released 5,000 cusecs of water to AP. This created a law and order problem in Telangana on polling day, she said.
AP’s action would be detrimental to the drinking water needs of Hyderabad, Santhi Kumari said.
Responding to this, Bhalla said that the Central Water Commission would convene a meeting soon on this and urged AP and TS to maintain the status quo. The project would be under the control of CRPF for the time being.
Meanwhile, AP Water Resources Minister Ambati Rambabu alleged that AP was compelled to reclaim its territory at NSP, as Telangana was operating the project in violation of the existing rules. He recalled that AP and TS should share Krishna waters in a 66:34 ratio respectively and maintained that there was no mistake on the part of AP officials.
Ministry of Jal Shakti secy to convene meet today
The Ministry of Jal Shakti secretary will convene a meeting on Saturday to diffuse the existing tension between Andhra Pradesh and Telangana on the sharing of Krishna river waters and resolve the issues on transfer of the operation of NSP and Srisailam along with all related structures to the KRMB