Andhra Pradesh chief minister Jaganmohan Reddy has alleged that the Krishna River Management Board is discriminating against the interests of his state.
Amid the standoff between AP and Telangana due to Reddy's Rayalaseema Lift Irrigation Project (RLIS) to draw Srisailam reservoir water and K Chandrasekhhar Rao's decision to use Krishna waters for power generation, the AP CM wrote another letter to union water resources minister Gajendra Shekhawat accusing Rao government of showing a “belligerent attitude.”
Referring to his earlier letter on 1 July, Reddy said that Telangana is producing hydel power at Srisailam, Nagarjuna Sagar and Pulichintala, and “water is being wasted into the Bay of Bengal due to the surplus at Prakasam Barrage.”
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“Telangana is not allowing water levels to build up in Srisailam reservoir and has utilized 19 TMC for power generation out of the 26 TMC inflows since 1 June. In view of this adamant attitude, reaching 854 feet level seems Herculean, which is essential for drawing water through gravity for schemes dependent on Pothireddypadu Head regulator. This will cause severe distress to the chronically drought prone Rayalaseema, Nellore, Prakasam districts and also Chennai city, as they depend on Srisailam for drinking water and irrigation needs.”
Reddy further said that the KRMB, “supposedly a neutral body to safeguard the interests of both states” is acting with a bias towards Telangana.
“KRMB acts swiftly on the false complaints of Telangana and ignores the genuine complaints of Andhra Pradesh,” charged the CM in his missive on Monday. “KRMB is repeatedly proposing for site visit of RLIS under the guise of NGT order ignoring the prior requests of AP to visit the unauthorized project sites of Telangana.”
Reddy said that Rao government is constructing “the unauthorized” Palamuru RangaReddy, Dindi etc lift irrigation schemes, in spite of repeated complaints to KRMB.
Reddy asked Shekhawat to direct the board to function neutrally and that “it may be directed to first visit Telangana's unauthorized projects under execution before visiting RLIS.”
The CM has restated his demand for immediate notification of KRMB jurisdiction and for “all the off takes including water for irrigation, power generation, drinking water on common reservoirs kept under KRMB control with CISF security for effective operation and maintenance in the interest of both states.'
In another letter to the minister for environment, forest and climate change Prakash Javadekar, Reddy has sought swift environmental clearances for RLIS, “as it does not involve land acquisition, forest area, wildlife sanctuary and is located 10 kms beyond the eco sensitive zone.”