No let-up in our battle for rightful share in Krishna waters: Telangana minister Uttam

New Indian Express

10-07-2025

HYDERABAD: Irrigation Minister N Uttam Kumar Reddy on Wednesday said that the government would persist with its legal, technical and administrative battle for Telangana's rightful share in Krishna river waters.
He accused the previous BRS regime of betraying Telangana and compromising on its long-term interests, allowing large-scale water diversion by Andhra Pradesh, engineering failures and financial mismanagement.
The minister made two detailed PowerPoint presentations at Praja Bhavan — one on the illegal diversion of Krishna river waters to Andhra Pradesh and the other on the disastrous consequences of shifting the originally sanctioned Dr BR Ambedkar Pranahita-Chevella Sujala Sravanthi (PCSS) project to Medigadda under the Kaleshwaram project.
The first presentation highlighted how the BRS regime, during its 10-year rule from 2014 to 2023, failed to protect Telangana's entitlement to Krishna waters and even facilitated illegal infrastructure development by Andhra Pradesh to divert water from the Srisailam reservoir. He said AP's diversion of Krishna water to outside-basin areas surged from 245.3 tmc between 2004-05 and 2014 to 1,192.44 tmc between 2014-15 and 2023-24, due to the expansion of the Muchumarri Lift Irrigation Scheme and the creation of the Rayalaseema Lift Irrigation Scheme (RLIS). These projects increased AP's drawal capacity from the Srisailam reservoir to 11 tmc per day.
The minister pointed out that these works were undertaken without clearance from the Central Water Commission (CWC) or Apex Council's approval, in clear violation of the AP Reorganisation Act. Despite being fully aware, the BRS government failed to raise objections with the Krishna River Management Board (KRMB) or the Union Jal Shakti Ministry, thus compromising Telangana's rightful share.
He said the previous government accepted unjust water-sharing ratios, first agreeing to a 299:512 tmc formula in 2015 and later to a 34:66 ratio in 2017-18, which continued until 2020.
He alleged that the BRS government even wrote to KRMB stating that the 34:66 formula should continue 'since no other basis exists'.
The Congress government, Uttam said, has now officially rejected that stance and submitted project-specific allocations to the Tribunal. These include 90 tmc for Palamuru-Rangareddy Lift Irrigation Scheme (PRLIS), 50 tmc for Kalwakurthy LIS, 40 tmc each for Nettempadu LIS and SLBC, 20 tmc for Bhima LIS and 15 tmc for Dindi LIS.