At a time when Krishna waters have become a bone of contention between Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, an item on the agenda of the Krishna River Management Board (KRMB) meeting is the appointment of a Hindi translator.
The Union Ministry of Jal Shakti is reportedly keen on having Hindi communications and officials who are on deputation from Telangana and Andhra Pradesh are not capable of communicating in Hindi.
KRMB reportedly proposed the appointment of a translator to translate letters into Hindi as an agenda item to be discussed at the 17th KRMB meeting as the Jal Shakti department is taking stock of communications in Hindi.
The Krishna River Management Board will be meeting on May 10. The board is likely to hire someone on contract for translations.
Among the 22 proposed agenda items is the sharing of Krishna River waters in the 50:50 ratio between AP and TS. Approvals for the Palamuru Rangareddy Lift Irrigation Scheme, drinking water 20%, telemetry setup, and modernisation of RDS are the other agenda items.
Telangana wlll raise the issue of projects taken up by AP without approvals. On RDS, the meeting will deliberate on the poor structural soundness resulting in low yields for Telangana. The recent issue raised by Telangana to stop work on the Veligonda project will also be discussed at the meeting.
Apart from this water draw from the Srisailam Dam by AP to meet its irrigation needs beyond the basin will also be raised. The meeting will also discuss water supply to unapproved projects as per the Jal Shakti gazette notification issued on July 15, 2021.
TS demanded a 50:50 ratio in sharing Krishna waters but AP opposed it and an ad hoc arrangement of a 66:34 ratio was followed for 2022-23. However, TS fixed a 50 per cent share from 2023-24 onwards.
