Jurala Project: AP Asks Karnataka To Release Water

Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy directed the District Collector of Mahabubnagar and irrigation officials to constitute teams for "saving each drop of water in the Jurala Project" to protect standing crops.

Meanwhile, Chief Secretary Minnie Mathew wrote a letter to her Karnataka counterpart in this regard, since the Chief Minister could not write to the Karnataka Chief Minister in view of the elections' model code of conduct.

The Chief Secretary stated in her letter to the Karnataka CS S V Ranganath, "There is an acute shortage of water in the Jurala Project, which is adjacent to the border of Karnataka, and it is linked with the inflows coming from the Narayanapur Project in Karnataka. The available water in Jurala Reservoir is only about 1.00 TMC, against the minimum summer requirement of 3.00 TMC, both for drinking water and also to save about 18,000 acres of standing crops from getting dried up."

The Chief Secretary added that Andhra Pradesh has not been receiving inflows from Narayanapur Reservoir, after meeting the rabi crop requirements in Karnataka, since February 20 this year.

"As a result, there is absolutely no inflow coming from Narayanapur Reservoir to Jurala Project in Andhra Pradesh," she wrote.

She also stated that the present storage available in Narayanapur Reservoir is about 18.00 TMC. She requested her Karnataka counterpart that at least 3 TMC of water from Narayanapur Reservoir be released to AP through the Krishna river, which will flow into Jurala Project, in view of the "acute shortage of water being faced in and around areas of Jurala Project in Mahabubnagar district."

The Chief Secretary said that AP has been facing a shortage of water, and that drought conditions have been prevailing, because of the failure of the monsoons.

"In particular, the Krishna river basin did not receive adequate supply of water to meet the minimum demands in the Andhra Pradesh, both for drinking water and irrigation purposes," she wrote.

She also said that due to inadequate rains, the total inflow into Krishna in Andhra Pradesh has been only 197 TMC, against the normal average of 821 TMC. (INN)