Jupally Krishna Rao defends Jurala water management amid farmers’ protests

Excise Minister Jupally Krishna Rao defended the Telangana government’s Jurala water management, citing water scarcity and drinking water needs. He said farmers were advised to cultivate dry crops, blamed the previous BRS government and sought Centre’s support to tackle drought.

Hyderabad: Admitting water scarcity in the Jurala Project ayacut, Excise Minister Jupally Krishna Rao said the Congress government had been appealing to farmers to take up drought-resistant dry crops to cope with deficient rainfall. Amid farmers’ protests to release water from the Jurala Project, the Minister said the situation had arisen due to the impact of El Nino. Since the beginning of the season, the government had repeatedly advised farmers to cultivate semi-dry crops, he said.

At a press conference here on Monday, Krishna Rao defended the State government’s decision on Jurala water release. He said the available water had to be used judiciously to meet drinking water needs. About 3 TMCft of silt had accumulated in Jurala, while another 2 TMCft was being stored to meet drinking water requirements. “Releasing the available water without fresh flood inflows will create a drinking water crisis,” he maintained, adding that the current inflow into Jurala was less than 300 cusecs.

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However, the Minister said the monsoon season was still ongoing and expressed hope that more water would flow into Telangana from the Almatti and Narayanpur projects in upstream Karnataka. “We are already making efforts to speak with the Chief Minister of Karnataka regarding the release of water,” Krishna Rao said.

On the Almatti issue, the Minister said the Congress government had approached the Supreme Court and that the stay order remained in effect. The legal battle was still continuing, he said. Stating that the Karnataka government was spending Rs 70,000 crore solely on land acquisition for the Almatti project, he assured that the Telangana government would not compromise on water allocations under any circumstances.

He claimed that water was released to the Nagarjunasagar Project solely for power generation. “Why would we ever want to harm the farmers?” he asked.

The Minister also blamed the previous BRS government for failing to construct additional reservoirs in Palamuru. He questioned why an additional reservoir was not constructed near Jurala to serve the 5.50 lakh acres under its ayacut. Countering the BRS charges, Krishna Rao said the Kalwakurthy lift irrigation motors were being operated regularly. They had stopped only for a few hours on a single day, he maintained.

Acknowledging that the State was facing difficulties due to El Nino, the Minister said the Telangana government had requested the Centre to provide an additional Rs 20,000 crore to tackle the drought.