HYDERABAD

Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy and Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu will discuss water-related issues in New Delhi on July 16 at a meeting to be facilitated by Union Minister for Jal Shakti C.R. Patil.

The Telangana government has decided to mount pressure on the Centre for achieving the rightful share of Krishna and Godavari river waters. Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy has asked the Centre to give clearance to the Krishna Basin projects in the State, allocate water to them and provide funding for their construction. He told Minister for Irrigation N. Uttam Kumar Reddy to address a letter to Union Minister of Jal Shakti C.R. Patil in this regard.

The Chief Minister alleged that the K. Chandrasekhar Rao government in the past had failed to achieve the rightful share of river water, particularly in the Krishna Basin, for 10 years. By agreeing to 299 tmc ft share against 512 tmc ft to Andhra Pradesh, the previous government had allowed the neighbour to divert Krishna water indiscriminately.

Similarly, in the Godavari Basin too, the BRS government had abandoned the Pranahita-Chevella project with a barrage at Tummidihatti after the Congress government had spent ₹11,000 crore on it till 2014, and instead the KCR government had wasted ₹1 lakh crore on Kaleshwaram project.

Meanwhile, Mr Uttam Reddy in his letter requested the Centre to take initiative on resolving the issues in Krishna and Godavari Basins and also clear pending clearances and allocate water to those projects. On Palamuru-Rangareddy and Dindi Lift Irrigation Schemes, he said they were yet to be given clearances and allocation of water, including 45 tmc ft State’s additional share in Krishna waters in lieu of A.P.’s diversion of Godavari water to Krishna Delta.

He reminded Mr. Patil that the Prime Minister’s Office had proposed on December 10, 2010 the national project status to Dindi LIS taken up in 2007 to address the fluoride problem. The inter-State clearance for Sammakka Sarakka Project (Thupakulagudem Barrage) was also pending despite Telangana’s readiness to pay compensation to submergence lands as Chhattisgarh was not giving a no-objection letter.

Further, he brought to the Union Minister’s notice that A.P. was diverting huge quantity (8-10 tmc ft a day) of Krishna water to the non-basin areas from Pothireddypadu Head Regulator, Rayalaseema LIS, Muchumarri, Malyala and Guru Raghavendra projects. He sought clearance for all projects taken up till 2014 under KWDT-I Award. Mr. Uttam Reddy also explained various other contentious issues in his letter.