Telangana chief secy writes to Krishna River Management Board seeking postponement of meeting

Telangana Special Chief Secretary Dr Rajat Kumar on Monday wrote a letter to the Krishna River Management Board (KRMB) chairman to postpone the proposed meeting on July 9.

The CS raised objections that the issues mentioned by the Telangana Engineer in Chief are not taken up for discussion in the meeting.

He mentioned a number of points that the Telangana government wants to discuss at the meeting.

He clarified that the state government has rejected the request of Andhra Pradesh to stop power generation from the Srisailam project.

The CS asked the KRMB to hold a meeting with the full board at a date after July 20.

Andhra and Telangana police deployed huge force at the Pulichintala project on their respective sides of the project along the border between the states on Saturday.

Telangana started power generation at Pulichintala and released water downwards into Andhra Pradesh, compelling Andhra to drain that water into the Bay of Bengal through Prakasam barrage at Vijayawada.

The crux of the water dispute between the two States is the allegation by the Andhra Pradesh government that Telangana is drawing Krishna river water from the Srisailam, Nagarjuna Sagar and Pulichintala projects for hydel power generation without obtaining clearances from the KRMB.

On the other hand, the Telangana government claims that KRMB has no right to stop power generation and it is generating hydel power well within the law.At the time of bifurcation in 2014, 299 TMC water from Krishna River was allocated to Telangana and 511 TMC was allocated to Andhra Pradesh.

( With inputs from ANI )