Telangana and Andhra Pradesh’s battle of ‘power’

The state of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh have shared borders and rivers, which means that there is a certainty that there will be a few rifts between the two states every now and then. Although the Chief Ministers of both the states vibe well, when it comes to the matters of the state, it is natural for one to gravitate towards the benefit of their own state.

Until a few days ago, both the states were struggling with the issue of Telangana using up all the water in the Srisailam reservoir. Following this, the Andhra Pradesh government wrote a letter to the Krishna Board, saying that the Telangana government was using up all the water in the reservoir to generate electricity. After several attempts by the Krishna board, there have been slight improvements in the situation.

Now, both the governments are once again fighting it out with the other, this time in terms of power generation. Interestingly, this is also over the water that is being drained from the Srisailam reservoir, and also from the Nagarjuna Sagar reservoir. The AP government complained to the Krishna River Management Board (KRMB) that TSGenco was generating power against the agreed ratio of 50:50 for the year 2020-21.

Following this claim, the KRMB wrote a letter to the ministry of Jal Shakti, and also appealed to the TSGenco in the same letter, to stop the generation of power using the water from Srisailam project. In spite of the letter, the Telangana government hasn’t stopped generation of power from the Srisailam project dam.

Both the states now continue to fight over their claim on the water of Srisailam Project, with neither ready to back down. This has caused tensions between the relationship of the CMs of both the states, and it is now to be seen how they will respond to this.