KCR and Jagan to meet on Friday: Assets top on agenda

Hyderabad: The maiden official meeting between Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao and his Andhra Pradesh counterpart YS Jagan Mohan Reddy is set to take off on Friday at Pragati Bhavan.

Officials said that the meeting between the two CMs is likely to last for two days to sort out the pending issues mainly water sharing disputes and division of assets as per the AP Reorganisation Act 2014.

Ahead of the meeting, AP Special Chief Secretary (Irrigation) Adityanath Das met Telangana Chief Secretary SK Joshi and finalised the agenda.

Officials said that the contentious project-wise allocations of Krishna water have been pending since the bifurcation of the state.

Telangana has been demanding KRMB (Krishan River Management Board) project-wise water allocations to utilise its share of water at optimum level.

The Water Resources Department and Chief Secretary of Andhra Pradesh have prepared a detailed report by taking suggestions from irrigation experts. As per the sources, Godavari water is being shifted to Krishna delta so far through Pattiseema project.

Now a similar plan would be extended to Rayalaseema districts and Telangana by designing a new project with combined effort and expenditure.

The water can be utilised to the Krishna delta also through Nagarjunasagar, said a senior official of the Water Resources department.

As per the new proposals, a lift irrigation scheme would be designed at Tupakulagudem in Telangana on Godavari to shift water up to Srisailam.

As many as 400 tmc ft of water could be shifted to Srisailam during the period of 100 days from July. Nearly 3,000 tmc ft of water has been flowing into the sea every year.

Telangana Chief Minister has put forward a proposal to take up the project jointly. The sources say the project cost could be borne by the two States.

They will also discuss on the upstream projects and illegal projects. Earlier, the two states have filed cases against each other's projects which may be the point of discussion.

Apart from this, the division of assets mainly the pending AP Bhavan in Delhi and Bus Bhavan in Hyderabad will figure in the meeting.