TS seeks equal share of water from Krishna

Telangana on Friday insisted that any division of water with Andhra Pradesh from Krishna river must be in equal measure, and told the Krishna River Management Board that nothing short of a 50:50 allocation of the river’s water will do.

Special Chief Secretary, Irrigation, Rajat Kumar told reporters after attending a meeting of the KRMB here along with officials from Andhra Pradesh that last year, Telangana agreed to a distribution of the river’s water at 66:34 ratio between Andhra Pradesh and Telangana with the hope that the KRMB would refer the issue of water allocation between the two states to a Tribunal that could decide the shares of the two states. This allocation was decided in 2015.

However, since this was not done, Telangana refuses to accept anything less than a 50:50 share of the river water with Andhra Pradesh, Rajat Kumar said. The Board, he said, informed that it would continue the allocation from last year, something which Telangana will not agree to. Telangana feels it received the short shrift in Krishna basin water allocation. The state has had some projects since the time of unified Andhra Pradesh, and there are also projects in Telangana designed to use flood water in the river. “We need 225 TMCft (thousand million cubic feet) of water for the ongoing projects. But the KRMB chairman said the Board does not have powers to decide on water allocations,” Rajat Kumar said.

He said the Board cannot take unilateral decisions and any decision it takes, must be based on consensus. If we do not get our share of 50% of the river’s water, we will approach the Ministry of Jal Shakti, he said.