Telangana govt's plea on Krishna River Management Board with Centre

Hyderabad: The efforts of Telangana state government to exert pressure on the Centre to not notify the draft sent by Krishna River Management Board to take control of the irrigation structures in both TS and Andhra Pradesh appear to run into a wall, and the issue has inadvertently landed in the Centre’s court. TS irrigation minister T. Harish Rao met Union labour minister Bandaru Dattatreya on Saturday and urged him to speak to Union water resources minister Uma Bharathi and get her to stop the Centre from issuing the notification as desired by the KRMB and AP.

However, a press communiqué by Mr Dattatreya said that he spoke to Ms Bharathi and requested her to arrange a meeting of the Chief Ministers of both the states along with officials to resolve the issue. This was what AP has been asking the Centre to do. The AP Cabinet had passed a resolution asking the Centre to call a meeting of the Apex Council, of which the two Chief Ministers are members. Meanwhile, a delegation of the TS government, headed by irrigation minister T. Harish Rao was supposed to hold talks with Ms Bharathi but the meeting was postponed to Monday.