Nagarjuna Sagar dam row: Centre steps in, CRPF arrives at site

Hyderabad: As tension escalated between Telangana and Andhra Pradesh over the Nagarjuna Sagar reservoir water release, the Telangana government approached the Centre.

As a result, CRPF personnel were deployed at the dam site on Saturday. On Saturday, Union Jal Shakthi secretary Debashree Mukherjee held a meeting with officials from both Andhra Pradesh and Telangana in virtual mode. A separate meeting was also held by the union home secretary with chief secretaries and DGPs of both states to de-escalate the situation.

Even though Andhra Pradesh has been releasing water to the right canal from Nagarjuna Sagar dam after taking control of 13 gates of the dam, the state government had placed an indent for the release of 5 TMC of water from eligible agreed allocated share of AP through Right Main Canal of Nagarjuna Sagar to meet the exigency of drinking water needs.

Andhra irrigation officials said the request of the Jal Shakthi secretary to stop water releases as a good gesture till KRMB takes a decision on Monday and the proposal to meet on December 6 in Delhi to discuss all the issues was agreed in the meeting.

In the meeting, Andhra Pradesh Chief Secretary K S Jawahar Reddy explained in detail what he calls indiscriminate use of water at the Srisailam Project for power production by Telangana and collecting the same at Nagarjuna Sagar Project to maintain complete control of water releases from the dam on both sides to their advantage, denying the legitimate agreed share of water to Andhra Pradesh.

He also said Andhra Pradesh has made a request to Telangana for the release of water through the right main canal which caters to exclusive needs in AP and is located in the territory of AP for implementing release orders of KRMB. The Chief Secretary informed that the control of the facilities located on the right bank in AP territory is taken and assured that it will be operated as per the release orders of KRMB from time to time.