MoJS plans Apex Council meet on water boards’ purview
The Hindu
States yet to depute required staff, deposit seed money
With no headway in sight on the implementation of purview of the Krishna and Godavari River Management Boards (KRMB and GRMB), the Ministry of Jal Shakti (MoJS) has decided to hold a third meeting of the Apex Council soon to convince Telangana and Andhra Pradesh to hand over the management of all projects to the two river boards.
Although the gazette notification issued by the Ministry on the purview of river boards on July 15 last had come into force officially on October 14, 2021, the two member States are yet to depute the required administrative and engineering staff, yet to deposit one-time seed money of ₹400 crore each besides not handing over the projects citing various reasons.
The two States have consensus on handing over only one Godavari Basin project – Peddavagu in Khammam district having ayacut in Telangana and AP. On the other hand, AP has offered to hand over the management of Srisailam project, one of the two common reservoirs, with the pre-condition that Telangana should hand over its hydro-electric projects/units at Srisailam and Nagarjunasagar.