Hyderabad: Responding to a request made by state government, Karnataka has issued orders for release of 1 TMC ft of water to Jurala dam to meet the drinking water needs of Mahbubnagar district.
According to TS irrigation minister T. Harish Rao, his Karnataka counterpart M.B. Patil had informed him of the decision over the telephone.
Mr Harish Rao had gone to Bengaluru on April 27 to request Mr Patil and Chief Minister Siddara-maiah to release 3 TMC ft of water from Naraya-napur for Jurala. He offered to cut 3 TMC ft from the TS quota in the monsoon period in lieu of the release now. Karna-taka agreed to release 1 TMC ft of water.
Telangana state engineer-in-chief C. Murali-dhar said the water would be released from a barrage between Narayan-pur and Jurala. “We can realise more water at Jurala due to reduction in distance,” he said, alluding to smaller losses due to absorption and evaporation. As of Saturday, Karnataka had not released the water.
Politically, there was a rush to claim credit. After Mr Harish Rao’s visit to Bengaluru on April 27, Telangana PCC president N. Uttam Kumar Reddy led a party delegation to Mr Siddaramaiah. After their meeting, Congress MLC Ponguleti Sudhakar Reddy sent an SMS stating that Karnataka had agreed to release 1 TMC ft.
The official letter, however, mentioned the request of Mr Harish Rao. Asked about this, Mr Uttam Kumar Reddy said “The water release was done on our request. We used our good offices with the Congress Chief Minister. He agreed to our request, since we represented a political party, Karnataka officials might have responded to the Telangana state government's official request.”
