AMARAVATI: In a major development, the Krishna River Management Board (KRMB) on Tuesday announced that the gazette notification on projects management will come into force from October 14.
The board resolved to take over 16 installations on Srisailam and Nagarjuna Sagar in the initial phase and expand its control bracket later. Taking Andhra Pradesh’s strong objections into consideration, board chairman MP Singh declared that it would take over the power plants on Srisailam and Nagarjuna Sagar too into its control without delay.
Singh on Tuesday directed AP and Telangana state governments to hand over all the outlets on Srisailam and Nagarjuna Sagar projects to KRMB by October 14. The board asked the state governments to issue separate GOs to complete the process of handing over of the projects listed in the gazette issued by the Union jal shakti ministry. The decision to take over all the installations including power stations, canals and regulators under Srisailam and Nagarjuna Sagar was taken at the full board meeting held in Hyderabad on Tuesday.
However, the suspense over KRMB taking physical control of the projects will continue for next two days as Telangana government is still reluctant to hand over the hydro-electrical power stations located on its soil on Srisailam and Nagarjuna Sagar.
In fact, KRMB sub-committee headed by its member RK Pillai had suggested the board to take at least 29 installations into its fold for effective implementation of the gazette notification. The committee held discussions with the officials from both states before readying the blueprint. However, the Telangana representatives have not signed the sub-committee report in protest against the inclusion of hydel power plants.
Apparently, taking Telangana’s reservations into consideration, KRMB chairman at Tuesday’s meeting proposed to take over 17 installations on four projects-Srisailam, Nagarjuna Sagar, Pulichintala and Sagar tailpond without making a reference to power stations in both states.
At this point, AP water resources secretary J Syamala Rao strongly objected to the blueprint saying that it was against the spirit of the gazette notification. He insisted that AP is willing to hand over the projects only when the board takes over the hydel projects on both the sides into its control.
He said the Centre issued the notification by fixing the board’s jurisdiction only after AP government raised an objection about the unauthorised utilisation of water from Srisailam and Nagarjuna Sagar by Telangana.
The board declared that there is no postponement of the schedule to implement the notification. “We have assured the board that we will hand over projects from our side as soon as Telangana issued a GO to handover the hydel power plants,” Syamala Rao said.
