Telangana Government has requested the Krishna River Management Board (KRMB) to restrain Andhra Pradesh from expanding the Telugu Ganga Project (TGP) by taking up a lift irrigation scheme by drawing water from Sri Pothuluri Veera Brahmendraswamy (SPVBR) Left Canal, a component of TGP.
In a letter addressed to Chairman of the river board M.P. Singh, Telangana’s Engineer-in-Chief (General-Irrigation) stated that AP Government had issued a notification calling for tenders for executing a lift irrigation scheme to lift 292 mcft or 0.292 tmc ft water a day from SPVBR Left Canal. The letter was addressed by Chief Engineer (ISWR) V. Mohan Kumar on behalf of the ENC.
The plan was to make lifting arrangements at 20.500 km, 24.900 km and 32 km length of the canal to fill Itugulapadu, Savisettipalli, Kondrajupalli, Varikuntla and Ganganapalli in Kasinayana mandal of Kadapa district. The Telangana ENC pointed out that taking up new outside-basin-surplus-based projects’ components/expansions (TGP) utilising Krishna water was in clear violation of the AP Reorganisation Act provisions.
Further, it would be detrimental to the interests of projects in Telangana serving acute drought-prone and fluoride-affected in-basin areas apart from the settled ayacut of Nagarjunasagar project command, downstream of Srisailam project, as also the drinking water needs of Hyderabad city.
The Telangana ENC urged the KRMB Chairman to stop AP from taking up expansion components of TGP based on Krishna water in the outside basin area without appraisal of the river board and approval of the Apex Council.
