The Andhra Pradesh Government on Friday welcomed the Central Government’s Gazette notification finalising the jurisdiction of both Krishna River Management Board (KRMB) and Godavari River Management Board (GRMB).
J Syamala Rao, Principal Secretary of Irrigation Department said that with the Gazette notification, KRMB and GRMB will have control over the operations and maintenance of the irrigation projects in both Krishna and Godavari basins, which will come into effect from October 14, 2021. He said that this particular notification was long due ever since the bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh, and added that the State’s water share will now fall under the jurisdiction of the Boards.
Rao said that Telangana has been generating electricity independently from the last 45 days in Srisailam, Nagarjuna sagar and Pulichintala projects. In fact, for power generation, the State government provides an indent to KRMB and based on the indent the Board issues orders for power generation. However, Telangana government started generating electricity independently without KRMB orders and went further by issuing GO 34 to generate 100 percent power, Rao said.
“From June 1 this year, Srisailam reservoir had an inflow of 30.38 TMC , of which 29.82 TMC was utilised by the Telangana government for power generation, leaving the storage at 806.8 feet. The minimum water level must be 854 feet to get water from the Srisailam Reservoir through Pothireddypadu Head Regulator on gravity basis and water level of 881 feet must be stored to use State share of water,” Rao said. Explaining the case of the Pulichintala project, he said that the Telangana government used 8 TMC of water for power generation,despite the KRMB’s objection. From the last 45 days, since June 1 the Telangana government has used 66 TMC of water for power generation, even after raising objections from AP and from KRMB.
Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy had written a letter to the Prime Minister Narendra Modi to ensure that the Telangana government stops generating power and also appealed to notify the jurisdiction of KRMB and handover the common projects to the Board, by assigning central forces like CISF as security, said Syamala Rao. In this case, the State government also approached the Supreme Court to sort the issues. Against this backdrop, the Centre has realised the Gazette notification bringing all the projects under the jurisdiction of KRMB and GRMB, he said.