AP says it has used water from Srisailam dam only with river board’s nod To TS’ 61 queries on Krishna, AP has few replies

Telangana state government senior counsel C.S. Vaidyanathan on Monday asked how much Krishna water the AP government had diverted from the Srisailam dam during the current water year to projects located outside the Krishna basin and for the projects based on surplus flows from the river.

He was continuing his cross examination of Andhra Pradesh irrigation affairs key witness K.V. Subba Rao, a former chief engineer, before the Krishna Water Disputes Tribunal.

Mr Subba Rao agreed in principle that Krishna water had been supplied to various projects under Srisailam dam but this was done on the directions of the Krishna River Management Board.

The cross-examination will continue on Tuesday. Key witness on agriculture affairs Dr P.V. Satyanarayana, principal scientist of Marteru Paddy Research Station, would be crossexamined over the course of the next couple of days.

Mr Vaidyanathan posed 61 questions concerning diversion of Krishna waters, to most of which Mr Subba Rao replied that he was not aware and needed to check with irrigation officials.

Mr Vaidyanathan asked whether, against the agreement of supplying 15 TMC ft of water to Chennai, the highest figure achieved at the Poondi reservoir point was only 5.18 TMC ft. This when 96 TMC ft of water was drawn from Srisailam to supply to various other projects.

To this, Mr Subba Rao said the Pothireddypadu regulator was also meant for the Srisailam right branch canal and Telugu Ganga. The AP government had to supply water to Chennai though Karnataka and Maharashtra did not contribute their share of 5 TMC ft so far.

Mr Vaidyanathan asked why the capacity of the head regulator capacity and the canal had been increased to 11,000 cusecs when the inter-state agreement stated that only 1,500 cusecs per day needed to be drawn for the Chennai scheme.

Mr Subba Rao said since the length of canal is about 400 km, and it has to pass through areas in need of drinking and irrigation waters, there bound to be obstructions due to human interference. the AP witness also agreed that a number of projects were located outside the Krishna basin.

The TS government has fielded irrigation department consultant G.S. Jha as key witness on irrigation affairs for the purpose of cross-examination by AP.