Hyderabad: The Telangana government on Tuesday boycotted the first coordination meeting of Krishna River Management Board (KRMB) and Godavari River Management Board (GRMB). The meeting was conducted to take measures as per the Jal Shakti ministry’s notification to take over all irrigation projects in both Telangana and Andhra Pradesh.
However, the irrigation department’s counterparts from Andhra Pradesh attended the meeting, that was headed by GRMB member-secretary BP Pandey, along with members of both GRMB and KRMB in participation.
The irrigation department officials confirmed that they were not attending the meeting. “While the GRMB meeting was informed in advance, the KRMB coordination meeting’s schedule i.e Tuesday was intimated to us (government) on Monday evening, which was a holiday for the state government department,” a senior official of the irrigation department was quoted as saying by Times Of India.
The state government had previously made requests to convene full-board meetings of both the boards, before a coordination meeting is taken up. Even on Monday, the authorities sought for emergency full-board meetings of KRMB and GRMB.
Reports said that Andhra Pradesh raised objections to the projects included in the gazette notification.
In a late night gazette on July 15, he union ministry of Jal Shakti on Thursday gave ultimate authority to the KRMB and GRMB for operation and maintenance of the common reservoirs of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana states, amid the ongoing row between two states regarding Krishna river water sharing.
The ministry divided the projects into three schedules and said that Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) shall assist KRMB and GRMB in the day-to-day management of the projects notified in the schedules.
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