Amaravati: AP farmers fume as Krishna water goes waste into sea

Amaravati: With no end to the stalemate between Andhra Pradesh and Telangana governments over utilisation of Krishna waters, the Telangana continues to go ahead with hydel generation and was releasing water from Srisailam, Nagarjuna Sagar and Pulichintala power projects resulting in huge quantities of water going waste into the sea for the third consecutive day.

This has resulted in serious concern among the farmers of the Krishna delta ayacut. According to officials, TS had released 8,340 cusecs of water from Prakasam barrage in the last two days. The present water level at Prakasam barrage was 3.07 tmc feet.

The representatives of the water users' associations visited Prakasam barrage on Saturday to take stock of the situation and appealed to authorities to divert the water to the Krishna delta ayacut canals, as it will help farmers to take up paddy transplantation.

Former deputy speaker Mandali Buddha Prasad appealed to the state government to divert Krishna water to Krishna Eastern Branch canal as people in the delta tail-end area Avanigadda in Diviseema was facing a drinking water shortage. He said even farmers were suffering as there was no water for irrigation in that part.

Officials said the TS government was generating power from Srisailam left bank hydel the project though the water levels were just 820 feet against the full capacity of 885 feet.

Meanwhile, simmering tension over power generation by Telangana at Nagarjuna Sagar continued and there has been no letup in police forces guarding the project on the Telangana side. Even tourists are not allowed to visit Nagarjuna Sagar.