Water release to Nagarjunasagar project deferred again

Khammam: Releasing water to the Nagarjunasagar project left canal is being delayed repeatedly by the irrigation officials. The officials changed the date of water release once again.

Firstly, they announced that the water will be released on  November 17 and then postponed it to Nov. 21. Later, they decided to release the water on December 1. Now, the water release has been deferred to December 7.

The letter from the Andhra Pradesh government questioning on the water share of Telangana in the Krishna river basin is learnt to be behind the latest change of date. According to the officials, water in the Srisailam reservoir  reached the full reservoir level (FRL) following the southwest monsoon.

In Narjunasagar reservoir, the water touched 540 feet against the FRL of 590 feet. The irrigation officials decided to release water for Rabi as Kharif has already ended.

The government allocated 20 tmcft each to Khammam and Nalogonda districts. The NSP officials chalked out the water release plan basing on the availability of water and the farmers of both the districts were asked to raise only irrigated dry (ID) crops.

However, the Andhra Pradesh government, in its letter to Krishna River Management Board, said, “The water share of Telangana in Krishna river basin is only 28 tmcft and wondered how could they evolve a plan to use 40 tmcft from the Nagarjunasagar reservoir”.

Following this missive, the Telangana government wanted to explain its argument regarding the issue to the Krishna River Management Board. As part of it, the TS government has decided to postpone the release of water to the NSP left canal.

The argument of the TS irrigation officials is that the AP authorities calculated the share wrongly. Meanwhile, the farmers in the NSP ayacut area are ready to grow Rabi and the repeated postponement is worrying them.