Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao today held a key meeting at the Pragathi Bhavan on the
recent gazette notification released by the Centre on the jurisdictions of the Krishna River Management Board (KRMB) and the Godavari River Management Board (GRMB). The Telangana government has been opposed to the notification ever since its release for not doing much to address the contentious Krishna water sharing issue.
Chief Secretary Somesh Kumar, Principal Secretary (Irrigation) Ramkrishna Rao, engineers, lawyers and various other top officials attended the meeting.
With them, the CM reportedly discussed Telangana's ongoing water feud with neighbouring Andhra Pradesh. After discussions on the matter, it was decided that the TRS government would challenge the Jal Shakti ministry's gazette notification for giving powers to the KRMB and the GRMB to call the shots on matters relating to water allocation and irrigation projects.
Airing his dissatisfaction with the notification, KCR discussed various legal means to oppose it. According to reports, he even directed the lawyers, the engineering officials, and the state's top brass to work on legally fighting the implementation of the same in the Supreme Court.
Meanwhile, the Telangana administration today stated that it would not attend the upcoming KRMB meeting scheduled for August 9. Engineer-In-Chief (ENC) Muralidhar wrote a letter to the board informing it of the situation.
This is the state administration's
second letter to the board on the issue.
In it, the ENC said that it was not possible for Telangana's officials to attend the meeting.
"Since the Supreme Court and the National Green Tribunal are already looking into the water sharing matter, Telangana cannot attend the upcoming board meeting on August 9. The apex court and the tribunal have to reach a decision to resolve the conflict. A new date can be set for the meeting by the KRMB after consulting the state's Principal Secretary (Irrigation), Ramkrishna Rao. If this is done, Telangana's officials can attend the meeting," he wrote.
Muralidhar then urged the board to conduct the meeting in the presence of all the KRMB members.
The water war between AP and Telangana, a rather bitter affair, has recently come to the fore again. The KCR government has raised various objections to the "illegal" irrigation projects constructed by AP which, in turn, has
opposed Telangana's irrigation projects, including the Palamuru-Rangareddy project.
Both states have sought legal recourse, hoping that this will help hasten the resolution of the matter. The Centre, it is expected, will take a call on the issue after holding some disucssions with top government officials