Krishna Water row: AP, TS stick to their guns

Hyderabad: A technical committee meeting of the Krishna River Management Board remained inconclusive on Wednesday as the consensus eluded Andhra Pradesh and Telangana over utilisation of the river water between the two states.

The Telangana government reportedly did not agree to the Board's proposal to utilise 3 tmc ft of water till November 3 for power generation at the Srisailam Left Power House.

As per reports, there was a broad discussion on the agenda items but there was no consensus. Hence we decided to meet again on Thursday, a top official, who did not wish to be quoted, said after the four-hour-long meeting at Jala Soudha. Whether the Board will be able to find an end to the dispute between the two states at tomorrow's meeting remains a puzzle going by the arguments put forth by the respective sides today, he added.

As such, it was decided to continue the meeting tomorrow, wherein Principal Secretaries of Irrigation departments of both the states will also take part. We had a fruitful discussion on Wednesday wherein all the technical aspects were discussed. We will put forth our viewpoints and issue a formal communication on Thursday, said Board member-secretary R K Gupta.

The Board chairman S K G Pandit, the chairman of Godavari River Management Board, engineers-in-chief (irrigation) -- Venkateswara Rao (AP) and Muralidhar (Telangana), and other senior officials attended the meeting. The meeting was organised in the backdrop of an ongoing dispute between the two states over utilisation of water in river Krishna with AP complaining against hydro power generation at the SLPH by Telangana.

At Wednesday's meeting, the Telangana government representatives wanted a meeting of the full Board, comprising the Principal Secretaries and other top officials, convened to sort out the issue. Among other things, the agenda of the meeting included discussing the water requirement for drinking and irrigation from Srisailam and Nagarjuna Sagar on a daily basis from October 24 to May 31, 2015 and the scenario of water availability and general release pattern considering the existing water distribution mechanism. It was also to consider the possibility of storing water in Dr K L Rao Pulichintala project and the rehabilitation and resettlement (of displaced families) besides finalising the document on Board's functioning. Issues related to power projects on river Krishna were also on the agenda.