Telangana State knocks at KRMB door over AP’s excess use of Krishna water

Hyderabad: The Telangana government has lodged a complaint with Krishna River Management Board (KRMB) against Andhra Pradesh for drawing excess water from the Krishna river.

Irrigation and Command Area Development (CAD) department Engineer-in-Chief (General) C Muralidhar wrote a letter to KRMB chairman asking the latter to take action against AP for excess use of water more than its entitlement and encroaching into Telangana’s share of water in the common reservoirs. The Board was also requested to intervene in the matter and direct Andhra Pradesh to stop utilising Telangana share of water from the Krishna river.

Muralidhar said that since Telangana does not have exclusive offline storages, it kept its balance of 18.701 TMC of its share in the common reservoir of the Nagarjuna Sagar Project (NSP) for the purpose of drinking water and irrigation requirements in the early months of the current fiscal.

The Andhra Pradesh government 12 raised an indent of 5 TMC to Nagarjuna Sagar Right Canal (NSRC) Project towards drinking water requirement for the month of July and utilised the Telangana share of water. “NSP has so far not received inflow from the Srisailam project.

Hence, the water available in NSP belongs to Telangana and the AP has used it against the rule,” he said.Last year too, Andhra Pradesh had utilized 205.20 TMC excess water than its entitlement share as per the 50:50 ratio, he said, adding that even considering the 34:66 (TS:AP) sharing ratio, Andhra Pradesh had utilized 51.745 TMC excess water than its entitle share. He urged the KRMB chairman to refer the sharing of water issues to the ministry of Jal Shakti.

How it functions

KRMB functions as per the provisions of sub-section (1) of section 85 of the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act 2014, such as administration, operation, maintenance and regulation. After nearly 7 years, the KRMB is notified by the Central government as an autonomous body and its project wise functions are identified. Since 2015, water available in the Krishna basin of the both states in a water year is shared in the ratio of 512:299 between AP and Telangana states as per the understanding between the parties.

What is KRMB

Krishna River Management Board is an autonomous body established as per Andhra Pradesh Reorganization Act, 2014 under the administrative control of Ministry of Jal Shakti to manage and regulate the waters in Krishna Basin in the states of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana.