Krishna River Management Board to meet today to discuss flow of funds, water allocation

According to the notice, the agenda of the meeting would also be to discuss the working arrangement for sharing of Krishna water during 2021-22 water year as Telangana requested an emergency sharing ratio of 50:50 against the agreed 66:34.

The Krishna River Management Board (KRMB) will on Friday discuss among other issues budgetary support and the working arrangement for sharing of waters of the Krishna during the 2021-22 water year during its full board meeting. One of the agendas of the meeting, over the ongoing tussle between Telangana and Andhra Pradesh in regard to the utilisation of Krishna water, is also to shift the KRMB headquarters from Hyderabad to Visakhapatnam.

According to a notice by KRMB member-secretary DM Raipure, providing budgetary support to the board is one of the critical issues that will come up for discussion at the meeting to be also attended by water resources officials of the two states.

During its third meeting, the KRMB proposed to create a reserve fund of ₹10 crore but so far both Telangana and Andhra Pradesh have not contributed any amount. Though a budget of ₹18 crore has been approved for the 2021-22 financial years, the two states have not released any money so far. "Even after repeated correspondence with both the states, the KRMB did not receive requisite funds. The Board now has a bank balance of only ₹2.46 crore,” Raipure said.

The KRMB has requested the two states to release ₹10 crore each immediately to meet its expenditure. The Telangana government released ₹3.5 crore last year against its allocated amount of ₹8.37 crore. "No funds were received from the Andhra Pradesh government in the last two years," Raipure added.

According to the notice, the agenda of the meeting would also be to discuss the working arrangement for sharing of Krishna water during 2021-22 water year as Telangana requested an emergency sharing ratio of 50:50 against the agreed 66:34.

Raipure further stated that Telangana's request for allowing it to carry over the unutilized share of water to the next year and Andhra Pradesh’s objection to it would also be discussed in the meeting.

The meeting would also discuss the Andhra Pradesh government’s complaint against the construction of several micro-irrigation projects in Telangana and the utilization of 175.54 tmc feet (one thousand million cubic feet) of water against the allotted share of 89.15 tmc ft. The KRMB would also focus on Telangana’s demand for an additional share of 45 tmc ft of Krishna water since Andhra Pradesh was diverting Godavari water to the Krishna basin and the two states’ tussle over hydel power generation.