Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao has recently withdrawn case from the Supreme Court on Krishna water row to enable Centre to resolve the Krishna water dispute between Telangana and Andhra Pradesh once and for all.

Now, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister YS Jaganmohan Reddy has decided to file a case in the Supreme Court seeking declaration of joint irrigation projects on Krishna, namely Srisailam and Nagarjunasagar as well as hydel power stations at these projects as ‘national assets’ and Centre should take total control of these assets. Jagan wants Supreme Court to direct Centre to provide CRPF security to these projects and hydel power stations and no police force or irrigation officials from Telangana or AP should be allowed to monitor or control these projects, hydel power stations.

When Union Jal Shakti minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat convened Apex Council meeting with KCR and Jagan in October 2020 to resolve Krishna river dispute, Shekhawat asked KCR to withdraw Telangana government’s case filed in the Supreme Court in 2015 to resolve this issue. KCR agreed but took eight months to withdraw the case in June this year. Shekhawat told Jagan and KCR that TS government’s pending case in Supreme Court has become a hurdle in solving Krishna water dispute by making fresh water allocations to TS and AP.

Now the situation has come back to square one with Jagan decided to file a case in the Supreme Court. The move is expected to block Centre’s attempts to resolve Krishna water dispute till Supreme Court delivers its verdict. Supreme Court could not deliver the verdict on TS government’s petition filed in 2015 till June 2021, when TS goverment withdrawn the petition. It remains to be seen how many years it will take for Supreme Court to deliver verdict on fresh petition to be filed by AP government in a day or two.