Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, Dec 2: The Centre was forced to intervene into the midnight clash over water between Andhra Pradesh and Telangana after Andhra allegedly forcibly released water from Nagarjunasagar right canal when Telangana was busy with the state Assembly elections on Thursday.
The incident came to light on Thursday when Telangana Chief Secretary Santhi Kumari alleged that about 500 armed policemen from Andhra Pradesh came to Nagarjunasagar Dam and damaged the CCTV cameras and released about 5,000 cusecs of water by opening the head regulators located at gate number 5 and 7.
Tension prevailed at the Nagarjunasagar Project site in Nalgonda district after Andhra Pradesh police took control over half of the project’s spillway area having 26 crest gates and erected barricades and barbed wires to prevent the police from Telangana going to the other side/half.
Reports said just hours before Telangana went to polls, Andhra Pradesh took charge of the Nagarjunasagar Dam and began releasing water, leading to tensions between the two states. At around 2 am on Thursday, when most Telangana officials were busy with the polls, nearly 700 Andhra cops stormed into the project and opened the right canal to release 500 cusecs of Krishna water per hour.
“We are releasing water from Nagarjunasagar right canal on Krishna river for the drinking water purposes,” Andhra Pradesh state irrigation minister Ambati Rambabu posted a cryptic message on X on Thursday morning. But the minister then clarified that they have only taken water that belongs to the state according to the treaty between Andhra Pradesh and Telangana.
“We have not flouted any treaty. 66% of Krishna water belongs to Andhra Pradesh and 34% to Telangana. We have not used even a single drop of water that does not belong to us. We tried to open our canal in our territory. This water is rightfully ours,” Mr Rambabu told the media.
With tensions flaring, the Centre has stepped in and urged both states to revert to the release of Nagarjunasagar waters as of November 28. The proposal was made by Union Home Secretary Ajay Bhalla during a video conference with Telangana and Andhra Pradesh. Both states have agreed to the plan. To avoid further conflict, the dam will be supervised by the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) which will also oversee that both sides are getting water as per the deal.
Santhi Kumari said the move by Andhra Pradesh created “law and order issues” in Telangana subsequently, when polling for the state assembly elections was going on, she said, expressing concern that it would seriously disrupt the drinking water supply of two crore people of Hyderabad and surrounding areas. Two cases were registered against Andhra Police in Nalgonda district of Telangana.
As per the provisions of the AP Reorganisation Act, Nagarjunasagar dam is controlled and supervised by Telangana and Andhra Pradesh was given the control over Srisailam project since the projects are joint storage facilities meeting the power generation, irrigation and drinking needs in the two States.
When contacted, the Chief Engineer of the Nagarjunasagar project V. Ajay Kumar said the A.P. authorities were creating an unwanted situation with their ‘over-enthusiasm’ in the name of having control of the dam and drinking needs. “As everyone is aware, the inflows into the project were very lean this water year and over 7 tmc ft water has already been utilised by AP to meet its needs under the Right and Left Canals”, he explained.
The Chief Engineer stated that A.P. had drawn water till Wednesday night under the Left Canal and after closing the vents the power supply to the crest gates as well as others was stopped. However, A.P. authorities have occupied half of the dam spillway area forcibly in the name of drinking water needs.
“They know about the poor water availability and for releasing 2 tmc ft water under Left Canal to AP we had to release another 2 additional tmc ft water so as to ensure the flow. Against inflows of 1,723 tmc ft last water year, the project has received only 90 tmc ft this water year”, he stated.
Senior authorities of the Irrigation Department, when contacted, stated that it was unfortunate that A.P. authorities had gone beyond their limits and mentioned that Telangana did not resort to such actions at Srisaialm ever. Meanwhile, Chief Electoral Officer Vikas Raj asked the politicians not to issue statements over the issue and the police would take care of the situation at Nagarjunasagar.
In 2015, the Andhra Police had made a similar effort to barge into the dam, but Telangana security forces rushed to the spot and prevented the attempt.
