Heated arguments took place between the counsels representing the Telangana and Andhra regions in the High Court here on Monday over release of Krishna river water from the Srisailam and Nagarjunasagar dams to the delta downstream.
After hearing the arguments, a division bench comprising acting chief justice PC Ghose and justice Vilas V Afzulpurkar directed the state government to file a status report on the crops, especially in the Krishna delta.
The bench was dealing with four writ petitions which sought a direction to the government not to release any water from Srisailam and Nagarjunasagar to downstream areas on the ground that it would adversely affect the drinking water supplies to Hyderabad city and the fluoride-affected Nalgonda district.
It posted the matter to September 10 for further hearing.
On an earlier occasion the bench had directed the government to maintain the MDDL (Minimum Draw Down Level) at the two dams.
When the petitions filed by Nalgonda Congress MP Gutha Sukhender Reddy, irrigation expert R Vidyasagar Rao and others from telangana, came up for hearing on Monday, those filed by Yelamanchili Sivaji and others representing the interests of the farmers of Krishna delta were tagged with the above cases.
The counsel appearing for the impleading petitioners complained that the government was not releasing water from the two reservoirs despite increase in the water levels and the crops in the delta region were withering away.
The basics of water management were not followed by the government which arbitrarily fixed the MDDL without considering the fact that the ayacut of Krishna delta was 150 years old.
It was the first time that water for the paddy fields was not being released, he said.
On the other hand, the petitioners' counsel complained that the government had recently directed release of water from Srisailam below MDDL of 834 feet.
Release of water from these two dams to downstream areas would adversely affect the drinking water needs of the twin cities and fluoride-affected villages in Nalgonda district, he said and requested the court to direct the government not to release water without reserving water for farm sector
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