Hyderabad: In an interesting development, the Telangana government headed by chief minister Revanth Reddy has appointed former chief secretary of Andhra Pradesh Adityanath Das as Advisor (Irrigation and Water Resources) on Friday, June 8.
The appointment by the Congress government seems to have not gone down with some, given that under Das the AP government in the past had complained to the Krishna River Development Water Board (KRMB) against Telangana over water allocation and other projects in the past. The KRMB oversees the distribution and allocation of water between Andhra Pradesh and Telangana from the Srisailam project.
In the past, officials from both the Telugu states have even come to blows over water allocation. “We don’t know why they appointed him. There are a lot of changes now in the department with this new government,” said a senior official from the state government, when asked about the appointment of Adityanath Das as an Advisor.
Another former official from the Telangana Irrigation government however said that this might not necessarily be a negative development. “He had worked with us during the combined Andhra Pradesh state and was also in-charge of projects for the Telangana region then. So in that context they have maybe appointed him. He was a key person earlier for irrigation projects,”
After the bifurcation of Telangana from the erstwhile Andhra Pradesh in 2014, 299 thousand metric cubic feet (TMC) was allocated out of the total 811 TMC of water in the Srisailam dam. The rest was for AP. However, the Telangana government has been seeking more water for its projects, and both states have often been at loggerheads over the issue.
Both Andhra and Telangana have been bickering over water sharing from both the Krishna and Godavari rivers. Periodical meetings are also held between both sides.
