State govt ups the ante for releasing water to Chennai

The state government has decided to step-up the water discharge from the Srisailam project to the Somasila reservoir today, as part of its effort to speed up the process of releasing water to Chennai from around 2,000 cusecs to 10,000 cusecs.

Tamil Nadu chief minister J Jayalalithaa, who met her Andhra counterpart here at the State Secretariat today, told the media that Andhra Pradesh chief minister Rajasekhara Reddy sounded very positive on her request to speed up the release process.

Speaking at a separate press conference, Reddy said that his government would try its best in ensuring that the water from the Telugu Ganga system is delivered to Tamil Nadu's border by the middle of October at the earliest.

He said that providing water to Chennai city via the Telugu Ganga project was a matter of keeping up the old commitment, based on an inter-state agreement signed before the then prime minister Indira Gandhi. "A state chief minister has asked for the water. We are working at it with all the seriousness," Rajasekhara Reddy said.

When asked about the state government's promise on releasing water a couple of days ago to the DMK representative and the Union Minister T R Baalu, the chief minister said that both the government and the opposition party have responsibilities carved out for them for their state.

Replying to a question Rajasekhara Reddy clarified that Maharashtra and Karnataka, which are a party to the agreement, were yet to release their share of 5 tmc each of water meant for Chennai. On its part, he said his government was making arrangements to keep up its commitment.

"If the situation permitted we will go all out to give the water beyond our share of 5 tmc to Tamil Nadu," he said.

The Somasila and Kandaleru reservoirs have to be filled up to a certain point to push the water further to Poondi reservoir situated on the other side of the Andhra "�Tamil Nadu borders. The Tamil Nadu government has already given Rs 511 crore towards its share for the construction of the Telugu Ganga project.