In a most unreasonable form, the Telangana state had sought 50 per cent share in the Krishna river water. The officials of the water resources ministry from Telangana have insisted on getting 50 per cent share to the state.

The TS officials were present at the Krishna River Management Board (KRMB) meeting held in Hyderabad on Friday. The officials of the water resources ministry from the two Telugu states attended the meeting, which was chaired by KRMB chairman M P Singh.

The KRMB had proposed sharing a 66:34 ratio between Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. Interestingly, after the state’s bifurcation everything was shared between the two states in almost the same ratio as AP is a bigger state than Telangana.

The Assembly seats, Parliament seats, the revenues and even the borrowings were distributed to the two states with greater numbers to Andhra Pradesh and smaller numbers to the Telangana state.

However, after 8 years of bifurcation, Telangana had come forward asking for greater share or rather equal share in the river water with Andhra Pradesh. In fact, TS had been creating problems for AP on irrigation issues and had been drawing more water both from Srisailam and Nagarjuna Sagar reservoirs.

It was due to this reason AP had written to the Union Jal Shakthi ministry to take over the river projects in the Telugu states for maintenance. The AP’s request was thus accepted by the Central government, while Telangana is yet to come to terms.

With Telangana raising unreasonable and unacceptable demand, it is to be seen how the Central government or the KRMB resolves the issue once for all.