TN asks AP Govt to release Krishna water at earliest

Chennai, July 24 (UNI) The Tamil Nadu Government today urged Andhra Pradesh to release Krishna water at the earliest, at a high-level liaison committee meeting held at Secretariat here.

Andhra Pradesh Chief Secretary T K Diwan, who led a nine-member delegation, held extensive talks with his Tamil Nadu counterpart L K Tripathy and other officials on the Telugu Ganga project.

Under an agreement signed between the two states in 1983, Tamil Nadu was to get an annual share of 12 tmcft from River Krishna after deducting three tmcft as transmission loss.

The committee which met after a gap of four years also discussed issues like completion of repair works on the Andhra Pradesh portion of the Telugu Ganga Canal and increasing the storage capacity of the Somasila and Kandaleru Reservoirs.

Andhra Pradesh proposed to raise the storage of Somasila to 78 tmcft and Kandaleru to 59 tmcft in a phased manner.

Later, Mr Diwan told reporters that the quantum of water to be released to Tamil Nadu and other technical details were discussed at the meeting.

''The Andhra Pradesh Government will be apprised of the discussions and an appropriate decision will be taken,'' he added.

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