Andhra Pradesh Government on Friday welcomed the Central government's Gazette notification finalising the jurisdiction of both Krishna River Management Board (KRMB) and Godavari River Management Board (GRMB).

On this occasion, speaking to the media J Syamala Rao, Principal Secretary of Irrigation Department said with the Gazette notification, KRMB and GRMB will have control over the operations and maintenance of the irrigation projects in both Krishna and Godavari basins, which will come into effect from October 14, 2021. He said that this particular notification was long due ever since the State bifurcation, and added that the State’s water share will now fall under the jurisdiction of the Boards.

Speaking on the water dispute, he said that the Telangana State has been generating electricity independently from the last 45 days in Srisailam, Nagarjunasagar and Pulichintala projects. In fact, for power generation, the State government provides an indent to KRMB and based on the indent the Board issues orders for power generation. However, Telangana government started generating electricity independently without KRMB orders and went further by issuing GO 34 to generate 100 percent power.

From June 1 this year, Srisailam reservoir had an inflow of 30.38 TMC , of which 29.82 TMC was utilised by the Telangana government for power generation, leaving the storage at 806.8 feet. He said that the minimum water level must be 854 feet to get water from the Srisailam Reservoir through Pothireddypadu Head Regulator on gravity basis and water level of 881 feet must be stored to use State share of water. Explaining the case of the Pulichintala project, he said that the Telangana government used 8 TMC of water for power generation,despite the KRMB's objection. From the last 45 days, since June 1 the Telangana government has used 66 TMC of water for power generation, even after raising objections from State end and from KRMB.

On this context, Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy has written a letter to the Prime Minister Narendra Modi to ensure that the Telangana government stops generating power and also appealed to notify the jurisdiction of KRMB and handover the common projects to the Board, by assigning central forces like CISF as security, said Syamala Rao. In this case, the State government also approached the Supreme Court to sort the issues. Against this backdrop, the Centre had realised the Gazette notification bringing all the projects under the jurisdiction of KRMB and GRMB, he said.