Naidu flays Telangana govt for taking power issue to streets

Hardening his stand in the light of attacks on the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) cadre in Telangana on the issue of power, Andhra Pradesh chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu on Wednesday told the government of the sibling state it could expect a helping hand only if it adopted a give-and-take approach with them.

Naidu's comments come in the wake of incidents of violence involving stone-pelting on the leaders of TDP on Wednesday and the burning of his effigies as well as a party office in Nalgonda district by the Telangana Rasthra Samithi (TRS) cadre.

The ongoing tussle over sharing of power between the two states took a new turn after the AP government lodged a complaint with the Krishna River Management Board (KRMB) against power generation at the Srisailam Right Bank Power house controlled by the Telangana government.

AP argued that using the reservoir water for power generation at below the point of the minimum draw down level (MDDL) by the Telangana government was in violation of the agreed priorities and allocations. In response to the AP government's letter, the member secretary of KRMB yesterday advised the Telangana government to honour the agreed priorities in use of reservoir water. 

However, Telangana continued with the power generation stating it had to run the hydel power house only to protect the standing crops in the state. Simultaneously, the TRS leadership mounted a political offensive against the TDP and their leadership across the state for "denying Telangana's due share in the combined power generation and eventually questioning its right to operate Srisailam power house."

While explaining the previous government orders issued in regard to Srisailam reservoir, Naidu said the right bank power house was allowed to use only 11,000 cusecs of water with a mandate to pump it back into the reservoir during the off-peak time of the same day. "Contrary to this, they have started generating power at the cost of irrigation and drinking water needs of AP. We wanted to give 300 Mw of power to Telangana though we ourselves were buying power at Rs 6.50 per unit. But we will not yield to their pressure tactics," Naidu said.

Meanwhile, the Telangana government issued a clarification to the KRMB stating it had not violated the norms in operating the Srisailam power house.