Defer implementation of gazette notification: Telangana CM K Chandrasekhar Rao

HYDERABAD: Chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao has urged Union Jal Shakti minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat to defer the implementation of gazette notification on Krishna River Management Board (KRMB) and Godavari River Management (GRMB).
The gazette notification was issued on July 15 and is supposed to come into effect from October 14. The CM also asked the minister to get the list of irrigation projects, revise a part of the gazette notification and also remove some projects which were listed as unapproved.
“Of the 107 major and medium irrigation projects that were listed in the notification, many were not common projects of both Telangana and Andhra Pradesh.The board should have purview of only common projects for both Telangana and AP such as Srisailam, Nagarjuna Sagar and Pulichintala in Krishna basin. There are no common projects on Godavari river,” KCR told the minister.
The CM met the Union minister in Delhi on Saturday along with some MLAs from erstwhile Mahbubnagar district. This is the second meeting of KCR with the Union minister this month. Though the Telangana government has been raising objections and concerns over some issues in the gazette notification, the boards were going ahead with their arrangements.
The CM and MLAs from the Mahbubnagar said AP went ahead with the construction of Rayalaseema Lift Irrigation Scheme (RLIS) illegally disregarding the directions of both KRMB and National Green Tribunal till recently. “Apart from constructing RLIS, AP has been diverting the Krishna waters through Srisailam outside the basin illegally through various projects,” KCR is believed to have told Shekhawat.
The CM said Palamuru-Rangareddy Lift Irrigation Project, which is considered to be a lifeline for the drought-prone Mahbubnagar, was not a new project and was sanctioned during the united AP regime. “But, the AP government is alleging that it is a new project, which is baseless,” KCR said.
He said many irrigation projects, which were taken up when the state was united, were also listed. “Projects like Itchampally, Indira Sagar, Rajiv Sagar, Devadula (Tupakulagudem barrage) and Mukteshwar (Chinna Kaleshwaram) were approved and allocations were also made prior to the bifurcation,” the CM explained.