AP’s contentions over hydel generation frivolous: Telangana

KRMB urged to take a proper view of the issue, overall

The Telangana government has termed the contentions of Andhra Pradesh over power generation taken up by it (Telangana) at Srisailam, Nagarjunasagar and Pulichintala hydel stations as “frivolous and baseless” and the objection that power generation will affect drinking and irrigation needs of AP are “far from reality, misleading and without any justification”.

In a response to the Krishna River Management Board’s (KRMB) letter written to Telangana following a letter addressed by AP earlier, Engineer-in-Chief (General) of Telangana C. Muralidhar said the contentions of AP were totally incorrect and untenable. Requesting the Chairman of the river board to take a proper view of the issue overall, the ENC asserted that Telangana would utilise its share of water at its discretion and exigencies and AP cannot have any objection in the matter.

He also pointed out that the AP Reorganisation Act did not specify the sharing of power generated at all power generation stations after dividing them between the two States based on their geographical location in the ratio of 50:50 forever and the understanding was applicable for only that year. The ENC stated that the power generation being made by Telangana was in consonance with the Planning Commission report and KWDT-I award on Srisailam Hydro-Electric project.

Citing page 104 of the KWDT-I report, the Telangana ENC made it clear that AP was not entitled to divert water from Srisailam outside the basin and the release of water through power generation would be to meet the requirements of Nagarjunasagar and Krishna Delta systems. Since water was being diverted from Godavari to meet the needs of Krishna Delta, the supplementation from Srisailam to Nagarjunasagar was pegged at 265 tmcft and even lesser in case the diversion of Godavari water to Krishna Delta was more than 80 tmcft.

Further, he pointed out that the AP government did not maintain level at +834 ft in Srisailam reservoir in any of the year from 1990-91 to 2019-20 during April-May but AP wants to maintain level at +854 ft to allow diversion of Krishna water to outside the basin. In addition, a memo was issued by the government in 2013 to draw water up to +760 level in Srisailam to meet irrigation needs in Krishna Delta by operating river sluices.

Stating that AP had taken up Telugu Ganga, Galeru-Nagari, Handri-Neeva and Veligonda projects based on surplus waters for serving outside the basin areas the Telangana ENC noted that the detailed project reports furnished to KWDT-II envisage drawal of water from Srisailam at +880 ft level and above and AP can not divert assured water from Srisailam to surplus water based projects as the adjudication process was going on by KWDT-II.

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