No change in Krishna order

Krishna River Management Board member-secretary Sameer Chatterjee on Wednesday ruled out any changes in the interim order on water releases for rabi for both Telangana and AP states.

Speaking to DC on the issue and the TS government’s protest over the interim order, Mr Chatterjee said that there was no point in changing the Board’s order. He disclosed that he spoke to officials of both the governments.

Agreeing with TS special chief secretary S.K. Joshi on maintaining of the ratio agreed upon by both the states, Mr Chatterjee said that the ratio was applicable for the entire allotment and need not be for each and every interim order on water release.

“We will definitely maintain the ratio in the entire water year, but if this is to be applied now for the interim orders it is difficult as AP is agreeing to any change now,” he said.

Mr Chatterjee said due to lack of consensus among officials of the two states and failure to strike a deal on releases based on the availability of water, the Board had intervened and given six options to both the states. “Unfortunately, both the states did not agree on a single option,” he said. Mr Chatterjee added that as per the request of both the governments, the Board had deleted utilisation of Krishna waters under the minor irrigation sources from the divisible pool.

If at all the Board has to consider deletion of utilisation under medium irrigation sources, Telangana would get much less what was allotted in the interim order, Mr Chatterjee said.

THE KRMB had given six options to both the states, but unfortunately, AP and Telangana states did not agree on a single option