As water level starts to increase in the Srisailam dam, both Andhra Pradesh (AP) and Telangana have demanded the release of water for irrigation.
The dam constructed across the Krishna River in the Kurnool district of AP has generated 10.48 million units of hydro electricity till Sunday morning. The dam is receiving heavy inflows and is expected to touch its full capacity, if the same flow continues for two more days.
The Krishna River Management Board (KRMB) has convened a three-day meeting from Monday to decide sharing of water from the dam to the two riparian states. KRMB, the regulatory body, was constituted under the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act.
Along with the officials of KRMB, representatives of the two states are participating in the meeting. AP Irrigation Minister Devineni Uma Maheswara Rao said on Sunday that two representatives of the state are participating in the KRMB meeting. AP will demand the board to immediately release water to all irrigation projects in the Rayalaseema and coastal Andhra regions.
"Kharif is already delayed, but we can still go for short-and medium-duration varieties of crops if water is released now. Our two representatives will insist on this," Deccan Chronicle quoted Maheswara Rao.
The AP Irrigation Minister added that the Krishna delta region is in need of irrigation water immediately.
Meanwhile, Telangana Irrigation Minister T Harish Rao said that the state would demand the KRMB to release water for Nagarjunasagar dam left canal, Alimeneti Madhav Reddy lift scheme and several other irrigation projects in the Mahabubnagar district.
Harish Rao demanded the board to give top priority to Telangana irrigation projects in releasing water. He added that Telangana has projects covered under assured irrigation.
Nandyala MLA and YSRCP leader Bhuma Nagi Reddy has already insisted that water from the Srisailam dam should be released to Telugu Ganga and Srisailam Right Bank Canal (SRBC) projects.
Water level at Srisailam Dam had touched 859 feet and it is sufficient to release water to the Pothireddypadu Head Regulator, Nagireddy pointed out.
"Like other projects, both TGP and SRBC got assured quota of waters from the Krishna Tribunal. There is no point in releasing water to the Nagarjunasagar dam from Srisailam in the name of power generation and deny release to Rayalaseema projects. This would clearly be injustice," he added.
The inflow of water into the Srisailam dam from the Tungabhadra dam in Karnataka and the Jurala dam in Telangana is continuing.
