Stop Taking Water From Nagarjuna Sagar: KRMB To AP

The Krishna River Management Board (KRMB) has directed the Andhra Pradesh government to stop taking water from the Nagarjuna Sagar right canal.

The KRMB Member-Secretary wrote a letter to the Principal Secretary of the A P Water Resources department in this regard.

Out of the 5 TMC of water sought for October, 5.01 TMC of water had already been released, the letter said, and so there was no pending water supply to be sent.

(AP is supposed to be sent 15 TMC of water per year from Nagarjuna Sagar - 5 TMC in October, 5 TMC in January and 5 TMC in April.)

The Member-Secretary also clarified that he had not received any request from the AP government seeking any release of water after November 30.

Meanwhile, police patrolling is continuing at Nagarjuna Sagar dam in Nalgonda district. The police are maintaining bandobust amidst barbed wire fences. Heavy police forces have been deployed by AP as well. Around 1,200 policemen from the State are present there.

At the time of bifurcation of the united State, the Krishna and Godavari river boards were formed. At that time, decisions were taken that the Srisailam reservoir in Andhra Pradesh and the Nagarjuna Sagar project in Telangana would be managed by the respective State. However, this decision was not implemented fully. The left power station in the Srisailam reservoir and other facilities are being managed by Telangana, and Andhra Pradesh officials are not being allowed to come there.

Then, 13 of the 26 gates in the Nagarjuna Sagar project are in the territory of Andhra Pradesh (the dam straddles the two States). Telangana officials release water from the right canal to Andhra Pradesh. In the past, there have been instances where water was not released despite orders from the Krishna Board. However, no such problems have arisen recently. Specifically, there is no record of the Andhra Pradesh sending an indent to Telangana to release water from the right canal of the Nagarjuna Sagar dam this month, and there has been no problem in the release of water in these previous two months.