Telangana, Andhra CMs to attend Centre's meeting on water issues

New Delhi [India], July 16 : The Union Jal Shakti Minister, Telangana Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy, and his Andhra Pradesh counterpart N Chandrababu Naidu will be attending a meeting on water issues being facilitated by the Centre on Wednesday.
The meeting is initiated by the Union Jal Shakti Minister, C R Patil.
The meeting, scheduled for 2.30 pm, holds significance against the backdrop of renewed tensions between the two states over water sharing, particularly following Andhra Pradesh's announcement of the Polavaram-Banakacherla project..
Both the Chief Ministers have previously expressed their willingness to resolve the issue through dialogue.
Earlier on Wednesday, Telangana Irrigation, Food and Civil Supplies Minister Capt. N. Uttam Kumar Reddy said the Congress government in Telangana would persist with its legal, technical, and administrative battle to reclaim the state's rightful share of Krishna river waters.
He accused the previous BRS regime of betraying Telangana's long-term interests by compromising with Andhra Pradesh, allowing large-scale water diversion, engineering failures, and financial mismanagement.
According to a statement, the Minister delivered two detailed PowerPoint presentations at Jyotirao Phule Praja Bhavan - one on the illegal diversion of Krishna River waters to Andhra Pradesh and the other on the disastrous consequences of relocating the originally sanctioned Dr B.R. Ambedkar Pranahita-Chevella Sujala Sravanthi (PCSS) project to Medigadda under the Kaleshwaram Lift Irrigation Scheme.
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. Uttam Kumar Reddy said Andhra Pradesh'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 enhanced AP's drawal capacity from the Srisailam reservoir to 11 TMC per day." He pointed out that these works were undertaken without Central Water Commission (CWC) clearance or Apex Council 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 stated that the previous Telangana government accepted unjust water-sharing ratios, initially agreeing to a 299:512 TMC formula in 2015 and later to a 34:66 ratio in 2017-18, which remained in effect 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".
He referred to a letter written by Chief Minister Revanth Reddy to the Union Jal Shakti Minister on March 3, 2025, demanding a reversal of the unfair ratio and reinforcing Telangana's demand for a 71% share - 575 TMC out of the 811 TMC originally allotted to undivided Andhra Pradesh, based on basin parameters like catchment area, population, drought-prone area, and cultivable land. Final arguments under Section 3 of the ISRWD Act, 1956, are underway before the Krishna Water Disputes Tribunal-II (KWDT-II), and the Congress government has decided to back its claims with strong technical and legal evidence.