High-level meeting on Nagarjunasagar postponed to December 6, AP asked to stop release of water

HYDERABAD: The High-level meeting in which Central Water Commission (CWC) chairperson Kushvinder Vohra, and secretary Ministry of Jal Shakti Debashri Mukherjee participated along with the officials of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh and Krishna River Management Board (KRMB) adjourned without taking any major decisions on Saturday.

The meeting, which was held through video conference, ended with the Telangana Government requesting the postponement of the deliberation to another day as the counting of votes was slated for Sunday.

The Committee, while asking the Andhra Pradesh Government to stop the release of water from the right canal, directed the KRMB to decide on the indent submitted by the AP side for the release of water by December 4. AP also explained its drinking water needs to the committee members.

The Centre which has already brought the Nagarjunasagar dam completely under the control of the CRPF on Saturday, was said to have decided to handover the management of both Nagarjunasagar and Srisailam dams under the supervision of the KRMB to avoid any future skirmishes between the two sides.

However, the Telangana Government had been objecting to handing over such a supervisory role to the Central Government and wished that both the sibling states should solve any problems through deliberations. However, the Andhra Pradesh Government unilaterally decided to release water by deploying its police force on the barrage.