Before elections in Telangana, Andhra Pradesh captures Nagarjuna Sagar Dam, tension over water

Just hours before the assembly elections in Telangana, Andhra Pradesh took control of the Nagarjun Sagar Dam on the Krishna River and started releasing water, leading to tension between the two states.

Thursday night, when most of the Telangana officials were busy in election arrangements, about 700 policemen from Andhra Pradesh raided the dam, opened the right canal and released 500 cusecs of water per hour.

Andhra Pradesh Irrigation Minister Ambati Rambabu posted a message on Twitter on Thursday morning saying, "We are releasing water from the right canal of Nagarjuna Sagar dam of Krishna river for drinking water."

Along with this, the minister clarified that he has taken only that much water as per the agreement between Andhra Pradesh and Telangana.

Irrigation Minister Rambabu told the media, "We did not violate any agreement. 66% of the water of Krishna River belongs to Andhra Pradesh and 34% to Telangana. We did not use even a single drop of water which is not ours. We tried to open our own canal in our area. This water is truly ours."

In view of the increasing tension between Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, the Central Government has intervened and appealed to both the states to return the water released from Nagarjuna Sagar. This proposal was put forward by Union Home Secretary Ajay Bhalla during a video conference. with Telangana and Andhra Pradesh.

Both the states have agreed on this. To avoid any further conflict, the dam will be monitored by the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), which will keep an eye on whether both sides are getting water as per the agreement.

The matter came to light when Telangana Chief Secretary Shanti Kumari on Thursday alleged that around 500 armed policemen from Andhra Pradesh entered the Nagarjuna Sagar Dam, damaged CCTV cameras and opened the head regulator located at Gate No. 5 and stole around Rs 5,000 cusecs of water left.

She said that Andhra Pradesh's move had created a "law and order problem" in Telangana during the elections in the state. Expressing concern over this, she said that this step of Andhra Pradesh will seriously disrupt the drinking water supply of two crore people of Hyderabad and surrounding areas.