Telangana: Registered strong protest before KRMB on symbolic control of NSP

Hyderabad: The state has presented an energetic protest before the Krishna River Management Board, opposing what it called a “symbolic takeover” by the Operational Control Board of the Nagarjuna Sagar Project. For the first time in 10 years of its existence, KRMB carried out its mandate by releasing water into the main canal of NSP in response to water crisis in Andhra Pradesh with the protection of CRPF forces. Noting that the operations of the press, which were under the control of Telangana since 2014, had taken over the river joint. Created as an autonomous body as per the AP Reorganization Act of 2014, the Ministry of Hydrological Resources is in charge of joint management and regulation of the waters shared in the Krishna between the states of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh. As part of the agreement, the junta gave operational control of Press Nagarjuna Sagar to Telangana and operational control of Srisailam Press to Andhra Pradesh. Although KRMB has wrested control of NSP from Telangana, the operational control of Srisailam is still in the hands of AP. Engineer chief (general) C Muralidhar and Nagarjuna Sagar project engineer chief V Ajay Kumar both called up the KRMB chairman and expressed their disappointment over the pace of the river body. He said that taking operational control of NSP is a violation of the instructions of Home Minister Ajay Kumar Bhalla, who wanted to restore status quo in the press site dated November 28, 2023. Avoid an uncomfortable confrontation between executives. After AP forces from both states forcibly occupied 13 out of 26 gates at the top of the project, on 29 November the Union Home Minister intervened by deploying CRPF forces in the press. As desired, the AP Police withdrew from the project by handing over the responsibility of press security and surveillance to central forces. Making it clear that they were not against handing over the project to the junta, state officials insisted on finalizing the water allocation for the project first. He asked why KRMB chose to remain silent even when AP used 50 TMC of river water in addition to last year’s share. He directed a series of letters to the junta on the subject, but no action could be initiated until that moment, he said.