"Proposed Rayalseema Lift Irrigation Scheme not new project"

Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy on Tuesday clarified that the proposed Rayalaseema Lift Irrigation Scheme was not a new project, but a "more better means to draw our allocated share of water" by the Krishna Water Disputes Tribunal.

Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy on Tuesday clarified that the proposed Rayalaseema Lift Irrigation Scheme was not a new project, but a "more better means to draw our allocated share of water" by the Krishna Water Disputes Tribunal. The RLIS would only supplement the existing projects through the same existing canal system without adding any additional ayacut or canal or storage, he said in a letter to Union Jal Shakti Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat.

He requested the Union Minister to lift the embargo and facilitate the state to go ahead with all the preliminary steps related to RLIS. Reddy asserted that the project would not have any adverse impact on Telanganas share of Krishna water as being claimed by the neighbouring state.

The AP Chief Minister was replying to a letter by Shekhawat in which the latterreferred to the "serious objections" raised by the Telangana government on May 12 to the administrative approval to draw six to eight tmc ft of water from Srisailam reservoir on river Krishna "in violation of the relevant provisions of AP Reorganisation Act, 2014." The project has not been sanctioned by the Apex Council and the KRMB conveyed that taking it up is in violation of Section 84 (8) (d) and para-7 of the XI Schedule of APRA," the Union Minister said in the August 7 letter. "I am very much concerned to note that there is a mention, in your letter, of certain projects being taken up by our state which are not new but a more better means to draw our allocated share of water in the KWDT-1.

Andhra's Pothireddypadu head regulator on Srisailam reservoir is not a separate project, but only facilitates supply of water to KC Canal, SRBC, TGP, GNSS besides drinking water to Chennai city," the Chief Minister pointed out. He said Telangana was constructing four new irrigation schemes with a withdrawal capacity of about three tmc ft per day at a sill level of 800 feet to utilise about 200 tmc ft from the foreshore of Srisailam reservoir.

Besides, there was a facility for power generation on the left side of Srisailam from a level of 796 feet with a discharge capacity of 42,000 cusecs on the Telangana side that they "often operate unilaterally", ignoring the directions of the Krishna River Management Board. "If all Telangana projects are at 800 feet, then how is it fair that Andhra projects continue to operate only at above 854 feet and that too, drawing only a meagre discharge at that level? It is only at 881 feet that AP gets to draw its potential share," the Chief Minister noted.

"Now, all that AP is doing is to make sure it also operates at 800 feet level on par with Telangana projects, confining once again only to the share of waters allocated by the KWDT. The canal is one and the same and Rayalaseema lift is only supplementing to the very same canal and nothing more, the Chief Minister asserted.