HYDERABAD

Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) senior leader and former Minister S. Niranjan Reddy has alleged that the Telangana Government has been a mute spectator to the huge water diversion by Andhra Pradesh from Srisailam reservoir through Pothireddypadu Head Regulator during the El Nino year when the in-basin areas too are facing water scarcity.

Speaking to media persons at Jupadu Bunglow in Kurnool district, where he was stopped by the AP police from proceeding towards PRP-HR on Thursday, he said the Revanth Reddy government had failed to prevent AP from “siphoning off” Krishna water to the non-basin areas, when the areas within the basin in Telangana were facing water shortage due to poor inflows into the Krishna Basin projects.

He alleged that the Telangana Government was suggesting farmers under Krishna projects only to raise irrigated-dry crops, and not paddy, citing the impact of El Nino conditions, but at the same time it was allowing AP to draw huge quantities of water through PRP-HR. He pointed out that AP was drawing about 4-5 tmc ft of water every day through gravity from the facility.

On the Telangana side, only 0.2 tmc ft water was being drawn every day for Kalwakurthy Lift Irrigation Scheme even if all three pumps were run and drawing one-tmc ft water would take 5-6 days. Stating that the effect of El Nino would be the same both for Telangana and AP, he said Telangana was allowing AP to draw huge quantities of water.

He explained that Kalwakurthy lift water had flowed only till 102 km of the main canal length so far against its total length of 162 km, despite ample flow of water in the Krishna river with release of flood at Jurala. Though there was no problem for giving water to the Jurala ayacut and the lifts based on it, the farming community was not given clarity at the Irrigation Advisory Board meeting held on Wednesday.

The BRS leader alleged that though AP was recording drawal of only 10,000 cusecs water through PRP-HR officially, it was drawing about 50,000 cusecs in reality. The Telangana government was silent on the AP’s drawal stating that it was their (AP’s) water.

Published - August 13, 2026 11:50 pm IST