The Andhra Pradesh and Telangana governments have reached to an understanding over sharing of the Krishna river's water from the Nagarjunasagar Dam, putting an end to the ongoing tussle.
The agreement is expected to save crops in both states, and will result in withdrawal of civil police from the project site. Also, only Irrigation Engineers-in-Chief will henceforth be allowed to interact and take decisions periodically, isolating political overtures.
As per the agreement, the Telangana government started releasing 5,000 cusecs of water from the Head Regulator and another 2,000 cusecs from the Power House on the right canal on Saturday evening, meeting the present demand of the water-starved tail-end crops of AP's Guntur and Prakasam districts.
The agreement was announced to the press by Telangana Irrigation Minister T Harish Rao and his Andhra Pradesh counterpart D Umamaheswara Rao after the conclusion of a two-hour-long meeting between AP and Telangana chief ministers in the presence of Governor E S L Narasimhan at Raj Bhavan on Saturday.
“It has been decided that the only Special Protection Force will man the project, and each vehicle will be searched before being allowed at the site. The states will carefully share the available water in such a way that crops on both sides do not dry up,” said Harish Rao.
