Stop illegal hydel power generation by TS, State urges KRMB
Water resources secretary has urged KRMB to take to the notice of the Centre asking it to initiate action against the TS government
VIJAYAWADA: The state government has written a letter to Krishna River Management Board seeking the intervention of the Union government to direct the Telangana government to stop drawal of water unauthorisedly from Srisailam, Nagarjunasagar and Pulichintala projects for hydel power generation.
Water resources secretary J. Syamala Rao, in his letter sent on Wednesday, has urged KRMB to take to the notice of the Centre asking it to initiate action against the TS government for non-implementation of the decision of KRMB and to bear responsibility.
The secretary stated that violating the prescribed norms, TS Genco was continuing to draw water from Srisailam, Nagarjunasagar and Pulichintala projects for power generation through its power houses. He said that even though there was no immediate downstream requirement of water for irrigation and drinking needs and NSP was having 311.15 tmcft of water, which was sufficient to meet future demands for irrigation and drinking of both state on downstream side, Srisailam reservoir was getting depleted continuously and such water was getting surplused into the sea as a waste.
He said that Telangana had drawn 113.57 tmcft of water from Srisailam, 86.60 tmcft from Nagarjunasagar and 23.63 tmcft from Pulichintala projects unauthorisedly as on Wednesday.
He wanted the indifferent behaviour of TS government in implementation of 14th meeting of KRMB, to be fixed referring to a provision of AP Reorganisation Act, 2014 stating that non-implementation of decisions results in the defaulting state to bear the responsibility and face financial and other penalties to be imposed by the Centre.
He wanted the 113.57 tmcft of water drawn from Srisailam project to be accounted against the agreed allocation of 299 tmcft for TS. He asked for 50% of the power generation of TS by utilising 110.23 tmcft of water from Nagarjunasagar and Pulichintala projects, should be shared to AP. He requested the KRMB to arrange an emergency Board meeting to discuss the issue of unauthorised power generation by TS and also to complete the agenda of its 14th meeting.
Meanwhile, the Joint Committee constituted by National Green Tribunal (NGT), through an interim report sought eight weeks' time to submit its report on the Palamuru Rangareddy Lift Irrigation Scheme (PR LIS).
The committee had visited Palamuru Rangareddy Lift Irrigation Scheme reservoirs of Narlapur, Yedula, Vattem, Karivena, and Uddandaput on September 15 and 16.