Hyderabad: Former Central Water Commission chief engineer R. Vidyasagara Rao who is now the irrigation adviser to the Telangana government has brushed aside the claims of the AP government for more Krishna water.

Giving details of the allocations made by the Bachawat Tribunal to united AP, the irrigation adviser said that it was very clear from the Tribunal Award that the allocations were ‘en bloc’ and not project wise. AP cannot give a different interpretation, he said.

Addressing the media at the Secretariat on Sunday, Mr Rao said in the current Water Year, AP has already overdrawn its share and hence it cannot make a fresh claim for water from the Nagarjunasagar Dam. He said utilisation in the NS Dam Right Branch Canal was 134 tmcft by AP as on today.

This is two tmcft more. Similarly utilisation in the Krishna Delta was 167 tmcft against an entitlement of 152.20 tmcft which is 15 tmcft more. The utilisation in the NS dam for the Left Branch Canal (AP region) is 32 tmcft against the 20 tmcft entitled.

He requested the Union water resources ministry and the Krishna River Management Board (KRMB) to notify water allocations among the two states including operation manuals so that the present arguments and counter arguments among the states could be addressed permanently.

He reminded that the united AP government's arguments on using water from the Almatti Dam in Karnataka and for using water for the Krishna Delta downside of NS Dam did not stand legal scrutiny.