Vijayawada: Demand for all-party meet on KRMB, GRMB

Vijayawada: Andhra Pradesh Water Users Association president Alla Venkata Gopala Krishna Rao demanded that the State government call an all-party meeting to discuss the Gazette notification released by the Central government on setting up Krishna River Management Board and Godavari River Management Boards.

Demanding that changes should be made in the Gazette notification, he said that the Prakasam barrage should be excluded from the Krishna River Management since it is located in Andhra Pradesh and there are no disputes on the barrage. There will be no use of including the Prakasam barrage in KRMB, he opined.

Addressing the media persons on Monday, Gopala Krishna Rao said Andhra Pradesh has full right to use the surplus Krishna river flood waters as per the Brijesh Kumar Tribunal. He suggested that the State government should send a letter to the Union government requesting the latter to exclude all projects which are in Andhra Pradesh from the KRMB.

He said Polavaram project and other projects like Davaleswaram barrage, Pattiseema, Purushottamapatnam, Tatipudi, Pushkara, Nagaram pumping schemes and lift irrigation scheme should also be excluded from the KRMB. He said major tanks, canals and small projects should not be included in KRMB.

Gopala Rao said the Water Users Association has expressed satisfaction for bringing the Srisailam, Nagarjuna sagar, Jurala and Pulichintala reservoirs under the purview of KRMB stating these are the projects connected to two Telugu States.

He took objection to calling Telugu Ganga, Velugonda, Handrineeva, Galeru Nagar as unauthorised projects in the Gazette notification. He said these projects were made with the approval of the central government.

He expressed concern that Krishna delta will become barren land if the Telangana government gets approval for Rangareddy, Dindi, Bhaktaramadasu, Tummella lift irrigation schemes and divert the water to Telangana in future.

He said these projects with capacities of 90 TMC, 30 TMC, 5.50 TMC respectively are under construction in Telangana and will be detrimental to the interests of the people of Andhra Pradesh.

It is the responsibility of Andhra Pradesh government to protect the interests of the farmers and to get its share of Krishna river.

He said the State government should convene a meeting with the opposition parties, irrigation experts and farmers association and send proposals to the Union government on changes to be made in Gazette notification issued by the Central government.