Telangana objects to canal lining work under AP’s Rayalseema Lift Irrigation Scheme
The ENC said that the lining works of the Srisailam right main canal which was a part of the Rayalaseema Lift Irrigation Scheme was in violation of National Green Tribunal orders
- Telangana
NewsTAP Bureau- Updated On:2 Sept 2023 6:55 PM IST
HYDERABAD: Engineer-in-Chief (General), Irrigation & CAD department of Telangana C Muralidhar in a letter to the Krishna River Management Board (KRMB) on Saturday urged it to stop Andhra Pradesh from proceeding with lining works of the canal taking off from Pothireddypadu head regulator.
The ENC said that the lining works of the Srisailam right main canal (SRMC) which was a part of the Rayalaseema Lift Irrigation Scheme (RLIS) was in violation of National Green Tribunal (NGT) orders.
The NGT directed AP on December 17, 2021, not to go ahead with the works related to RLIS without obtaining pre-environmental clearance. So far, the Ministry of Environment and Forests has not sanctioned the clearance for the project.
“It is learned that the Government of Andhra Pradesh has taken up the lining works of SRMC taking off from Pothireddypadu head regulator and a major portion of it is completed, against NGT order. If these illegal lining works are completed, it will facilitate further huge diversion of Krishna water from Srisailam reservoir to outside the basin, i.e., much more than the capacity of the unlined canal,” the ENC argued.
The Telangana Government reminded the KRMB that the Government of AP was not permitted to divert more than 1,500 cusecs from the Srisailam reservoir in terms of the 1977 Interstate agreement.
Hence, KRMB must take immediate and effective steps to stop this illegal activity of the AP Government and protect the genuine and legitimate claims of the people of Telangana on Krishna waters, the ENC said.
