Hyderabad: As water levels sunk in Srisailam and Nagarjunasagar even before peak summer, the sharing of Krishna waters was creating a rift between the two Telugu states of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh. The Telangana government accused Krishna River Management Board (KRMB) of being biased towards AP. The Board issued orders allocating 17 TMC to TS and 16 TMC to AP. TS complained that AP had already utilised additional water than allocated on March 6 while it was yet to utilise 7.26 TMC from the allotted share.
Its contention was that KRMB resorted to blatant discrimination in its fresh allotment without taking into consideration water utilisation. KRMB issued orders on March 6, allocating 24.467 TMC to TS and 9.3 to AP. But, at a meeting held late on March 20 fresh allocations were made to the two States. The TS government strongly objected to higher allocations to AP without taking into consideration the utilisation amount between March 6 and 20.
However, AP Government dismissed the argument and said water should be allotted on the basis of available reserves and not previous utilisation which was approved by KRBM. Chief Secretary S.K. Joshi, who is also the irrigation secretary, took up the issue with Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao.
