CM for protecting standing crops under Jurala Project

Hyderabad, April 26 : Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy directed the District Collector, Mahabubnagar and irrigation officials to constitute teams for saving each drop of water in Jurala Project to protect the standing crops.

Meanwhile, Chief Secretary Smt Minnie Mathew wrote a letter to Karnataka counterpart in this regard since the Chief Minister could not write to the Karnataka Chief Minister in view of the elections’ model code of conduct.

The Chief Secretary stated in her letter to the Karnataka CS Mr S.V. Ranganath that there is acute shortage of water in Jurala Project which is adjacent to the border of Karnataka State, and it is linked with the inflows coming from the Narayanapur Project in Karnataka. The available water in Jurala Reservoir is only about 1.00 TMC against the minimum summer requirement of 3.00 TMC, both for drinking water purpose and also to save about 18,000 acres of standing crops from getting dried up.

The Chief Secretary informed that Andhra Pradesh is not receiving inflows from Narayanapur Reservoir, after meeting the Rabi crops requirements in Karnataka, since 20.2.2013. As a result, there is absolutely no inflow coming from Narayanapur Reservoir to Jurala Project in Andhra Pradesh. She mentioned that the present storage available in Narayanapur Reservoir is about 18.00 TMC. The Chief Secretary requested the Karnataka counterpart that in view of the acute shortage of water being faced in and around areas of Jurala Project in Mahabubnagar District of Andhra Pradesh, at least 3.00 TMC of water from Narayanapur Reservoir be released to Andhra Pradesh, through Krishna River which will flow into Jurala Project so as to save the current acute water shortage in the areas coming under Jurala Project

The Chief Secretary said that Andhra Pradesh is facing acute shortage of water and drought conditions are prevailing due to failure of monsoon rains. In particular, the Krishna River basin did not receive adequate supply of water to meet the minimum demands in the Andhra Pradesh both for drinking water and irrigation purposes. She mentioned that due to inadequate rains, the total inflow into Krishna River in Andhra Pradesh has been only 197 TMC against the normal average of 821 TMC. INN