River Boards uncertain of paying staff salaries

Both the states had responded positively with an emphatic 'yes' on the issue of clearing the dues owed to the boards. But their assurances die not yield funds.

Hyderabad: The Krishna River Management Board (KRMB) and the Godavari River Management Board (GRMB) are in for severe financial difficulties.

The Krishna River Management Board is literally on the edge in the absence of budgetary support from the Andhra Pradesh and Telangana.

---

With a precarious account balance of less than Rs 9 lakhs, it is quite uncertain of paying salaries to the staff for the current month. When it comes to the GRMB, it is equally cash- strapped. It may not be able to meet the expenditure on the staff salaries for the month of May.

The staff have stopped making field visits unless it is case of emergency to cut down expenditure on travel allowances, thanks to board operations running on cost cutting mode.

“But for the support of my wife, who gets her salary with unfailing regularity so far, the going would have been tough for my family, a senior officer sums up the worsening financial status of the board. The finances are no better than the projects. Both are running dry, he quipped. T

he issue of cash crunch impacting the operations of the river boards was taken up with Debashree Mukerjee, Secretary, Department of Water Resources, Ministry of Jal Shakti on January 9 last.

The Ministry had sent a DO letter to both the states drawing their attention to the plight of the boards. Both the states had responded positively with an emphatic ‘yes’ on the issue of clearing the dues owed to the boards. But their assurances die not yield funds.

The Boards found the promised funds hard to come by for the past three months. The Boards are planning to prevail on the Ministry of Jal Shakti again for direct fund support. The KRMB sources said that the gof Telangana has generated a token for Rs 7.43 crore last year.

But the funds were not released till today. The Board had adopted a resolution tasking its member representing the State to pursue the issue. The board has made a request to both the states to release funds due from them. AP owed Rs 11.58 crore as against Rs 20.13 crores by Telangana State.

The staff salary component of the KRMB will be amounting to Rs 6 crores. It would require Rs 5 crores to meet the expenditure on the allowances, medical bills, LTC and staff training expenses.

In the absence of support from the States concerned, the GRMB has been meeting the expenditure from the reserve funds. The board has sought Rs 8 crore from AP and a matching support from Telangana for the current year. Both the states owe almost Rs 16 crore for the last financial year.

So far as the dues for the last two financial years are concerned, “we drew a blank in our efforts to get funds released from either of the states”, said an official from the GRMB.

Two water boards manage operations of 107 projects

The KRMB and the GRMB will complete a decade of operation this year. These boards were constituted under Section 87 of the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act, 2014.

Their primary responsibility is to manage irrigation and hydel projects of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh in the Krishna and Godavari river basins. Both boards have operational control and maintenance authority over 107 major and medium irrigation projects in the two basins.