The Telangana Government has requested the Krishna River Management Board (KRMB) to refer some issues that were decided at the board meeting held on May 10 including sharing of water in the Krishna Basin between Telangana and Andhra Pradesh to the Ministry of Jal Shakti for discussion and decision in the Apex Council.
In a letter addressed to the Chairman of the River Board Shiv Nandan Kumar, Engineer-in-Chief (General-Irrigation) of Telangana C. Muralidhar stated that it was decided at the May 10 board meeting that the issues pertaining to the demand of equal water share (50:50), stopping illegal projects of AP and accounting water drawal in excess of its allocation by AP in the 2022-23 water year, all raised by Telangana, be referred to MoJS for taking up at the Apex Council meeting.
The issues were also recorded in the minutes communicated by the River Board to the Member States. However, there was no intimation from the River Board so far about referring the issues to the Centre (MoJS), Mr. Muralidhar said adding that several ongoing projects were being operationalised by AP without any agreement over the water sharing ratio between the two Member States in place.
He stated that it was difficult to divert a huge quantum of water to those projects without any mutually agreed arrangement in place till the shares were finalised by a tribunal. He made it clear to the River Board that in the interregnum, Telangana would place its indents and use the water presuming its share as 50% as requested and informed repeatedly and requested the board to refer the issues to MoJS at the earliest and intimate Telangana.
