Telugu states agree to hand over two dams to KRMB

Hyderabad: Telangana and Andhra Pradesh on Thursday in principle agreed to hand over the management of the Srisailam and Nagarjuna Sagar dams to the Krishna River Management Board (KRMB).

Telangana Irrigation Engineer-in-Chief, C Muralidhar and Andhra Pradesh Engineer-in-Chief, Narayana Reddy revealed this after the KRMB meeting here on Thursday.

Narayana Reddy said the meeting decided to hand over six outlets in Telangana and nine outlets in Andhra Pradesh to the KRMB.

He told media persons that Telangana had some inhibitions and the same were clarified during the meeting.

Muralidhar said both the projects would be under the purview of the KRMB.

He clarified that the Nagarjuna Sagar project had not been completely handed over and that the KRMB would only look after its operation and regulation of water.

The KRMB meeting was attended by Chairman and irrigation officials of both the Telugu states and the Union Ministry of Water Resources.

Muralidhar said that the issue of water allocation has been entrusted to a three-member committee but operation of the projects will be handled by the KRMB.

Both the states agreed on allocation of staff for the management of the projects.

He stated that water release quantum and schedule will be decided by the three-member committee while the KRMB will implement those decisions at the field level.

The Board will handle the management of head outlets of both the projects.

He hoped that the new arrangements would avoid controversies between the two states.

This year Telangana plans to draw 20 TMC but the quantum will now be decided by a three-member committee.

“If the committee decides the quantum at 15 TMC or 22 TMC, the same will be implemented by the Board through us,” he said.

The Telangana Engineer-in-Chief clarified that there is no change in Telangana’s stand that it should be allocated 50 per cent share in Krishna River waters.

He said the state has conveyed its demands in writing to the Centre and it was waiting for a response.

Muralidhar said there was no discussion on management of power generation plants.

It may be recalled that there was tension between both the states at Nagarjuna Sagar Dam on November 30 when Andhra Pradesh officials forcibly released water to Andhra Pradesh by opening gates.

The Union Home Ministry had intervened to deploy the CRPF. Later, the Union Water Resources Ministry had called a meeting of both the states to defuse the tension.