The ongoing row between Telangana and Andhra Pradesh on sharing of electricity and water today reached the doors of common Governor ESL Narasimhan, with both the state governments meeting him over the issue.
Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao called on the Governor at Raj Bhavan in the evening. Though there was no official word on the meeting, he is understood to have discussed the ongoing controversy over sharing of electricity from the Srisailam generation station, official sources in Telangana government said.
Alleging that Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu is denying the rightful share in electricity to Telangana and not honouring provisions of the AP Reorganisation Act, the Telangana Chief Minister had earlier sought the Centre's intervention and also said that his government would move Supreme Court.
The current dispute between Andhra Pradesh and Telangana is about power generation at Srisailam (project). Andhra Pradesh wants Telangana to stop power generation at the Srisailam project as continued power generation would lead to water scarcity in Andhra in future.
However, Telangana has refused to stop generation in the view of the prevailing acute power shortage, especially to agriculture. Prior to Chandrasekhar Rao meeting the Governor, Andhra Pradesh Irrigation
Minister D Umamaheswara Rao briefed him over the continued power generation at Srisailam by Telangana.
"We met Governor and told him that water levels at Srisailam are coming down. It is alarming. It is coming down to 856 ft. The ayacut of SRBC in Rayalaseema needs to be protected.
"We tell Telangana as well, let's protect and save water. Up to 70,000 cusecs of water is going into the sea through the Prakasam barrage. We should not be hardening our stance," the minister told reporters.
Observing that Naidu wants farmers to be protected in both the states, the minister said, "Farmers need to be protected both in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh. Our goal is to see that water is not lost."
He further said that he has explained "all the facts" to Governor who will go through the relevant material concerning the issue. Highlighting that water needs to be saved, the minister said that power can be purchased from other states, but even a single TMC of water cannot be obtained.
The representations to the Governor today came amid a bitter war of words between the two state governments. The Telangana Chief Minister alleged on last Friday that his Andhra Pradesh counterpart has sought to defame TRS government and that "he is a cheater".
Taking exception to Rao's criticism, AP's communications advisor Parakala Prabhakar said yesterday that the former's remarks against Naidu were "unbecoming" of his stature.
"He has crossed all limits. Being a chief minister, it is highly unbecoming of KCR (as the Telangana CM is popularly known) to use such intemperate language. Moreover, what else he spoke is blatantly false," Prabhakar said.
Prabhakar had alleged that KCR seemed to have not understood the substance of government orders (GOs) 69 and 107 that regulate the use of water at Srisailam reservoir.
"Nowhere in the GOs it has been mentioned that water could be used for power generation in times of crisis," he had said. Meanwhile, responding to Prabhakar's comments, Telangana Irrigation Minister T Harish Rao told reporters on Sunday that AP government did not talk about another GO (No 233).
"They are talking about GO 107. But the same YS Rajasekhara Reddy government had issued GO 233 as well. I ask why the Seemandhra leaders are not talking about GO 233. If we observe GO 233, we will understand whether the rules are being flouted by Andhra Pradesh government or by the Telangana government. GO 233 was brought by modifying GO 69 and GO 107," he said.
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