Telangana nod to share 3.5tmc water to Karanataka

Hyderabad, Jan 05: The Telangana and Karnataka governments have decided to continue their reciprocal arrangement on sharing of Tungabhadra water.

The Irrigation ministers of the two states, MB Patil and T Harish Rao, held a meeting with officials concerned at Jala Soudha on Thursday. During the meeting, Patil requested Harish Rao to allow Karnataka to use Tungabhadra water allocated to Rajolibanda Diversion Scheme (RDS) to meet the drinking water needs of Karnataka.

Telangana has a share of 3.5 tmc Tungabhadra water in RDS. Both the Ministers discussed the water required for irrigation in Telangana and how much water could be shared with Karnataka for drinking water needs.The TS informed Karnataka that they required water for 7,000 acres of irrigated dry (ID) crops in Alampur Assembly segment and the remaining water could be shared with Karnataka for their drinking water needs.

Harish Rao informed Patil that they would take up the matter with Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao and announce an official decision on sharing of water. In return, Patil told Harish Rao that if the TS released water from RDS to them, Karnataka would release 2 tmc water from Narayanpur to Jurala.

Karnataka and Telangana Ministers also decided to conduct a tripartite meeting of Karnataka, TS and Andhra Pradesh on completion of modernization works of Rajolibanda Diversion Scheme (RDS).