Turf between Telangana and Andhra Pradesh governments over irrigation projects

In a major development, the Telangana government has alleged that Andhra Pradesh is carrying out illegal construction of the Rayalaseema Lift Irrigation Scheme and Rajoli Banda Diversion Scheme (RDS)’s a right canal. Whereas Andhra Pradesh has clarified that the construction of irrigation projects in the State are subject to water allocations by the tribunals and ridiculed the objections of Telangana State on AP projects.

The Chandrashekar Rao-led Telangana government had already approached the National Green Tribunal on the AP Projects matter and cases are also filed in the Supreme Court. The state cabinet severely condemned Jagan Mohan Reddy for not paying heed to the instructions given by the NGT and the Centre.

Earlier the Cabinet has taken the decisions to get the due share of Krishna river waters to the state amidst the danger of Palamuru, Rangareddy, Nalgonda, Khammam, Warangal for Irrigation and Hyderabad district facing acute drinking water problem. Telangana also decided to launch a campaign among the people about the heavy losses that the irrigation sector in the state would incur due to the illegal projects of the AP.

Meanwhile, responding to the allegations levelled against the Andhra Pradesh government, state Minister for Water Resources P Anil Kumar Yadav stated that Andhra Pradesh has been using only the allocated water share to it, while Telangana had been constructing new projects without any permissions and has increased the capacity of Kalwakurthi and Nettempadu projects.

CM Jagan wanted the two states to be on friendly terms and took a step forward in that regard. All these projects have been there for decades and the State government is only trying to increase their capacity. The Vamsadhara Tribunal has given clearance to construct the Neredi project and the construction will start soon, said Water Resources Minister.