Telangana used 66 tmc ft water for power generation illegally, says official

Amaravati: Principal secretary, irrigation department, J Syamala Rao, while welcoming the gazette notification finalising the jurisdiction of both Krishna River Management Board (KRMB) and Godavari River Management Board (GRMB) said with the notification the two river boards will have control over the operations and maintenance of the irrigation projects in both Krishna and Godavari basins, which will come into effect from October 14, 2021. He said that this particular notification was long overdue ever since the state bifurcation, and added that the state's water share will now fall under the jurisdiction of the boards.

Speaking on the water dispute here on Friday, the principal secretary said that the Telangana has been generating electricity independently for the last 45 days in Srisailam, Nagarjunasagar and Pulichintala projects. In fact, for power generation, the state government provides an indent to KRMB and based on the indent the board issues orders for power generation. However, Telangana government started generating electricity on its own without KRMB orders and went further by issuing GO 34 to generate 100 per cent power.

From June 1 this year, Srisailam reservoir had an inflow of 30.38 tmc ft, of which 29.82 tmc ft was utilised by the Telangana government for power generation, leaving the storage at 806.8 feet. He said that the minimum water level must be 854 feet to get water from the Srisailam reservoir through Pothireddypadu Head Regulator on gravity basis and water level of 881 feet must be stored to use state share of water.

Explaining the case of the Pulichintala project, he said that the Telangana government used 8 tmc ft of water for power generation, despite the KRMB's objection. In the last 45 days since June 1 the Telangana government has used 66 tmc ft of water for power generation, even after objections from AP end and from KRMB.

In this context, Chief Minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy has written a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to ensure that the Telangana government stopped generating power and also appealed to notify the jurisdiction of KRMB and handover the common projects to the board, by assigning Central forces like CISF as security, said Syamala Rao. In this case, the state government also approached the Supreme Court to sort the issues. Against this backdrop, the Centre had realised the gazette notification bringing all the projects under the jurisdiction of KRMB and GRMB, he said.