Irrigation Minister Uttam Kumar Reddy accuses BRS of failing to protect Telangana’s Krishna river water rights, leading to losses to Andhra Pradesh
Hyderabad: Irrigation minister N Uttam Kumar Reddy on Thursday lashed out at the BRS for “spreading falsehoods” on the issue of sharing of Krishna river water with Andhra Pradesh “in a desperate attempt to mislead the public.
The minister was addressing a press meet soon after former irrigation minister and senior BRS leader T. Harish Rao, at another press meet, charged the Congress government with remaining a “silent spectator to AP looting Krishna water threatening to leave our state dry.”
“Instead of admitting to the BRS government’s failures in protecting Telangana’s river water interests and apologising to the people, Harish Rao is trying to defame the Congress government. It was the BRS government, during its 10-year rule, that allowed AP to increase capacities of projects on Krishna. It was also the BRS which repeatedly signed off on a smaller share of Krishna water for Telangana, and it was the BRS that destroyed the irrigation sector in Telangana,” Uttam Kumar Reddy said.
He said, “under KCR, Telangana was deprived of its rightful share of river water. The BRS government never took responsibility to protect Telangana’s rights and in its 2023-24 budget, it placed on record that it was willing to hand over the Nagarjunasagar dam and other key projects to Krishna River Management Board and even set aside `200 crore for their maintenance.”
Andhra Pradesh was allowed to float tenders for the Rayalaseema lift irrigation scheme (RLIS) with the BRS government seeking a postponement of the Apex Council meeting. “This project was approved just days after a secret agreement between KCR and Jagan Mohan Reddy. With this, Telangana lost about 7 tmc ft of Krishna water that naturally flows by gravity, while Andhra Pradesh was allowed to withdraw 8 tmc ft per day from Srisailam,” he said.
Data from the Krishna River Management Board (KRMB) show that from 2014-15 to 2020-21, Andhra Pradesh consistently used over 60 per cent of Krishna water while Telangana’s share remained below 36 per cent. In 2014-15, AP used 529.33 tmc ft while Telangana got only 227.74 tmc ft (30.08 per cent). By 2020-21, AP had further increased its usage to 629.07 tmc ft, leaving Telangana with just 248.23 tmc ft, he said.
“On November 29, 2023, just a day before the Telangana elections, the AP government forcefully occupied the right half of the Nagarjunasagar dam with 400-500 armed police personnel, and released 5,000 cusecs of water without KRMB’s approval. But the BRS government failed to take immediate action,” he said.
The consequences of this negligence were that crucial irrigation projects like Palamuru-Rangareddy, Kalwakurthy, and Dindi lift irrigation schemes faced delays. Farmers in Mahbubnagar, Nalgonda, and Rangareddy districts have suffered due to water shortages, and even Hyderabad’s drinking water supply has been at risk, he said.
