AP Diverting Krishna Water Illegally: Telangana

Telangana Irrigation Minister T Harish Rao alleged that the Andhra Pradesh government was obstructing the release of water from Srisailam to the Nagarjuna Sagar reservoir.

Rao met with the Krishna River Management Board (KRMB) Chairman Ram Sharan and Member Secretary Sameer Chatterjee today. Telangana State Advisor R Vidyasagar Rao, Special Chief Secretary S K Joshi, ENC Vijaya Prakash, Irrigation Department OSD Sridhar Rao Deshpande, Nagarjuna Sagar CE Sunil and others participated in the meeting.

Harish Rao engaged in a heated debate with Chatterjee over the KRMB's silent approval for the AP government's alleged "illegal diversion" of water to its land from Srisailam (AP) through Pothireddypadu, leading to low inflows to the Nagarjuna Sagar reservoir (Telangana).

The irrigation minister said that an expert team appointed by his ministry had recently got to the root of the issue at the Pothireddypadu reservoir and found that AP was diverting the Krishna river waters through the reservoir from Srisailam, instead of from the Penna basin.

He said that the waters which were supposed to reach Srisailam were being diverted to Rayalaseema through Pothireddypadu illegally.

Rao accused the Andhra Pradesh government of looting Krishna water by transforming the Pothireddypadu canal into a "decoy Krishna river".

The minister also accused the AP government of grossly understating the amount of water it was diverting through Pothireddypadu as a few hundreds of cusecs, when in fact it was a few thousands.

He claimed that the Telangana government had already lodged a complaint with the KRMB against AP's actions in this matter, only to get ignored.

At the end of the meeting, Sameer Chatterjee agreed to take an expert team and investigate Harish Rao's claims, and deliver justice to Telangana if the claims were found to be true.