Telangana, Andhra Police clash over sharing of river water

Hyderabad, Feb 13 (IANS) The row between Telangana and Andhra Pradesh over sharing of Krishna river water took a serious turn Friday with police of the two Telugu states clashing at Nagarjuna Sagar dam.

Tension prevailed at the dam in Nalgonda district of Telangana as policemen of the two states exchanged blows after a heated argument between officials of the irrigation departments of both the sides.

Intervention by senior officials saved the situation from going out of hands.

Chief ministers of both Telangana and Andhra Pradesh Friday night decided to meet in the presence of Governor E. S. L. Narasimhan here Saturday to discuss and sort out the issue amicably.

Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu spoke to his Telangana counterpart K. Chandrasekhar Rao over phone. Rao mooted the suggestion of a meeting in the governor's presence and Naidu agreed.

The Telangana chief minister also assured Naidu that he would call back police from the dam. He asked police force to exercise restraint.

The trouble at the dam began Friday when irrigation officials of Andhra demanded their counterparts to release the water for Krishna delta. The irrigation officials of Telangana refused to oblige, saying they have not received any orders from their government.

Telangana Irrigation Minister Harish Rao and his Andhra counterpart D. Umamaheswara Rao also traded allegations. Harish Rao told reporters in Hyderabad that Andhra Pradesh had drawn 43.13 TMC more water than its due share. He, however, agreed to release more water to save crops in Andhra provided the Andhra government make a written request.

The Andhra irrigation minister told reporters in Vijayawada that Telangana is wasting water but not releasing it to Andhra to save the crops. He claimed that Andhra is seeking water as per the Krishna water tribunal award.