BRS Axed State Prospects on Using Krishna Water: Uttam

Hyderabad: The Telangana government on Monday slammed the opposition BRS, accusing the previous BRS government of “permanently damaging” Telangana’s prospects on claims to Krishna River water by repeatedly agreeing to not only hand over projects to KRMB, but also by letting Andhra Pradesh drain the river and watch silently, in 10 years of its rule. Irrigation minister N. Uttam Kumar Reddy — who gave a digital presentation in the Assembly on how the BRS government was responsible for the current situation on the Krishna River Management Board handling the river projects issue — showed how former chief minister K. Chandrashekar Rao and his BRS government never fought for the rightful share of Telangana in Krishna River.Of the 811 tmc ft of ‘en bloc’ allotment to erstwhile unified AP, after Telangana was formed, the Chandrashekar Rao government agreed to just 299 tmc ft for the state, allowing AP to get 512 tmc ft, completely ignoring the rightful claims of Telangana based on the fact that much of the Krishna River basin is in Telangana, he said.“Not just that, the BRS government agreed year after year to continue the same arrangement and even went to the extent of saying let this arrangement be permanent until the final water share is decided for the two states by the Krishna Water Disputes Tribunal,” Uttam Kumar said.The AP government, Uttam Kumar Reddy said, has been “relying heavily on the documents that show Telangana agreeing to allow it to use 512 tmc ft a year, and is seeking to make this allocation permanent. This will be thanks to the BRS government’s actions,” Uttam Kumar Reddy said.Against the minimum drawdown level at the Srisailam reservoir of 834 feet above mean sea level, for the RLIS scheme, AP has set the MDDL at 797 feet.“This will leave nothing for Telangana from Srisailam as RLIS is designed to take all the initial monsoon flows into the river,” he said. “The way KCR allowed AP CM Jagan Mohan Reddy — after long personal meetings with him at what was then called Pragati Bhavan — has done the most serious damage to Telangana’s interests,” he added.In addition to allowing AP to do as it pleases, Uttam Kumar Reddy said beginning in 2015, the BRS government had repeatedly okayed not just excess water share to AP, but also never opposed the proposal for handing over the river projects to KRMB.Pointing to these instances, with details of meetings and dates, Uttam Kumar Reddy said that Chandrashekar Rao, along with the then irrigation minister T. Harish Rao, had explicitly agreed to the handing over the projects to KRMB in a September 2016 meeting of the apex council that was also attended by then AP chief minister N. Chandrababu Naidu.“The decision to maintain the status quo had significant implications. However, by choosing to continue with the existing arrangement until the tribunal's decision, Telangana now faces potential challenges,” he said.Due to the negligence of the BRS government, AP increased its withdrawal capacities over the last 10 years, he said, adding that this rose from 4.1 tmc ft in 2014 to 9.6 tmc ft in 2023.Uttam Kumar Reddy said that despite sabotaging Telangana state's interest in the Krishna River water share, the BRS government was spreading false propaganda that the Congress government handed over control of the projects to KRMB.