T releases water from Jurala after K’taka assurance
Telangana irrigation officials said around 2,000 cusecs of water was released from Jurala on Wednesday. Of this, about 1,000 cusecs was let out through the right canal and 717 cusecs through the left canal. Officials said Jurala currently has 5.4 tmcft of water against its full capacity of 9 tmcft and is receiving inflows of about 2,500 cusecs from upstream areas. In 2019, Karnataka had released 2.5 tmcft to Telangana at the request of then CM K Chandrasekhar Rao. The state govt has urged Karnataka to release 5,000 cusecs of water a day for a month. 25 tmcft of water is presently available in Narayanpur dam in Karnataka, while Almatti reservoir has around 120 tmcft, according to the irrigation department.
BRS working president KT Rama Rao and former ministers T Harish Rao, S Niranjan Reddy and V Srinivas Goud said the govt released water only after sustained pressure from agitating farmers.
Srihari and Jupally said Shivakumar assured them that water would be released to Jurala in an “on-and-off” or on a ‘warabandi’ basis over a period of 10 days. Irrigation officials said such a release would help Telangana meet both irrigation and drinking water requirements in the Mahbubnagar region. Water lifting has also begun at Nettampadu and other irrigation schemes to protect crops that are at a crucial stage. The ‘warabandi’ system is a rotational water allocation method used in irrigation to distribute limited canal water fairly among farmers. The Narayanpur reservoir receives inflows from various sources, mainly from the Almatti dam In a post on X, CM Revanth later thanked his Karnataka counterpart: “On behalf of people of Telangana, I express my heartfelt thanks to Chief Minister of Karnataka, @DKShivakumar garu for honouring our request to release River Krishna waters for our state. This is a great example of bonhomie between two different states and showcases the love and brotherhood of people of India. Karnataka is likely to issue a formal statement before releasing water, keeping in view the already ongoing dispute over water with Tamil Nadu. Officials noted that even if Karnataka agrees to release water immediately, it will take nearly two days for the flows to reach Jurala.