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The State government has requested the Krishna River Management Board (KRMB) to keep in abeyance the draft report and recommendations of the Reservoir Management Committee (RMC) and advise Member-Convenor of the committee to issue clarification stating that there is no change in Telangana’s stand on the issues of water and power sharing.
In a four-page letter addressed to Chairman of the river board M.P. Singh, Special Chief Secretary (Irrigation) of Telangana, Rajat Kumar, said there is no change, whatsoever, in the State’ stand on carry over storage, consumptive use of drinking water and accounting of flood waters. All the issues were already communicated to the river board through several several letters in the past.
“None of the issues as drafted in the RMC report are in the interest of Telangana and any agreement without our claims is definitely going to play against the case of Telangana before the KWDT-II,” Mr. Rajat Kumar said expressing concerns. He said neither the draft report nor the recommendations were acceptable to Telangana and they should be kept in abeyance.
Referring to RMC Member-Convenor B. Ravi Kumar Pillai speaking to a section of newspersons after the committee meeting held on December 3, wherein he claimed that Telangana had accepted the draft report and recommendations of the committee and agreed for 50:50 share of power generated at Srisailam, Mr. Rajat Kumar suggested the KRMB Chairman to advise the Member-Convenor of RMC to issue suitable clarification to the press.
He brought to the KRMB Chairman’s notice that the draft report and recommendations of the RMC, which were circulated among the Member States for signatures at the December 3 meeting, was being publicised and reported in a section of the media as the agreement between Andhra Pradesh and Telangana.
“Telangana has not given any consent on sharing of power generation benefits from Srisailam reservoir, rule curves for Srisailam project, demarcation of surplus water over and above 75% dependable flows, water sharing ration between AP and Telangana and carry over utilisations in the next water year which were reported to be agreed upon by Telangana,” Mr. Rajat Kumar clarified.
Sources in the Irrigation Department said the issue had gone up to Chief Minister’s level seeking to know how could the RMC Member-Convenor could claim that Telangana had accepted the draft report and recommendations which were completely against the interests of Telangana without its knowledge and agreement. “Telangana has not even signed the RMC draft report on reservoir management and its recommendations,” a senior engineer of the Irrigation Department told The Hindu.
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