The Krishna River Management Board, at a virtual meeting organised on Thursday, decided to constitute a technical committee, comprising engineers from Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu, to sort out matters pertaining to supplying drinking water to Chennai.
While Andhra Pradesh and Telangana had agreed to release 5 tmcft of water, Karnataka and Maharashtra were yet to give clarity on releasing their share of 10 tmcft.
As per the Bachawat Award, Chennai is entitled to receive 15 tmcft of water. Of this, 10 tmcft has to be released by Maharashtra and Karnataka. As they have not been releasing their share, Chennai has been receiving only about three to four tmcft of water through the Telugu Ganga Project.
In the meeting, the Telangana government reportedly complained that Andhra Pradesh had been diverting the water to its requirements in the name of supplying the same to Chennai, and sought that the neighbouring State be penalised for it.
Responding to the allegation, representatives of Andhra Pradesh said there was no provision to levy penalty when the agreement had been entered into with Tamil Nadu by the combined Andhra Pradesh.
“More so, Andhra Pradesh is ready to release water for 200 days in a year, or 8 tmcft, during July-October and another 4 tmcft during January-April. Andhra Pradesh has already released 5.5 tmcft till date. Last year, 8.5 tmcft was released,” the officials said.
A suggestion to lay a pipeline to supply water to Chennai also came up for discussion. It was proposed to lay a pipeline either from Srisailam reservoir or Somasila reservoir or Kandaleru reservoir up to Tamil Nadu border.
At present, water is being diverted through an open canal from the Kandaleru reservoir in Andhra Pradesh to Chennai’s reservoirs.
