All eyes on Telangana State, Andhra Pradesh water meet
It is certainly going to be a stormy affair when Krishna River Management Board meets
By : DC Correspondent
Update: 2014-10-27 01:07 GMT
Hyderabad: Amid escalation of political tensions between AP and Telangana state governments over utilisation of Krishna waters by the states, it is certainly going to be a stormy affair when Krishna River Management Board meets on October 29 to take stock of the latest situation.
The meeting was scheduled on Sunday, but the Telangana government raised an objection against the meeting called in such a short notice. Even, Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao expressed his anger against the Board chairman.
Sources said, Mr Rao also expressed his ire against the chairman meeting AP Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu while he did not even talk to Mr Rao once. With this, the KRMB chairman has now decided to have the meeting on October 29.
Secretaries of irrigation department and the chief engineers of both the states are members of the Board. Officials of both governments have prepared their own versions and arguments on their rights either on releases or stopping releases from Srisailam and NS dams.
While the Telangana government is relying upon the GOs 69 issued in 1996 and GO 233 issued in 2005 for going ahead with further releases from Srisailam dam, the AP government is relying on GO 107 issued in 2004 in support of their argument.
The AP government wants to continue with all the GOs governing the releases. The Telangana government brings a new argument that it will not accept the GOs issued in the united state.
As per the AP Reorganisation Act, that has created the KRMB, the Board alone is empowered to decide on releases from Krishna based projects either for power or for irrigation requirements.