The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh / Tirupati News : Temple towns anxious for Telugu Ganga water

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Oct 14, 2004

Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh - Tirupati

Temple towns anxious for Telugu Ganga water

By Our Special Correspondent

TIRUPATI, OCT. 13. Besides Tamil Nadu, which is to get 10 tmcft of water from the Telugu Ganga as per an assurance given by the Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister, Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy, to his Tamil Nadu counterpart, J. Jayalalithaa, the two temple towns of Tirupati and Srikalahasti are also anxiously waiting for the water levels in the Kandaleru reservoir to rise.

It is through this project that the Krishna water from the Srisailam reservoir is to be supplied to water-starved Chennai.

It may be recalled that in the wake of an acute drinking water scarcity faced by Tirupati two years ago during the TDP regime, water from the Kandaleru was pumped into the Kailasagiri summer storage tank built in the upper reaches of Tirupati and supplied in time to quench the thirst of the residents of Tirupati and the visiting pilgrims.

Similar arrangements were made subsequently to use the Telugu Ganga water to meet the needs of Srikalahasti town as well to help it tide over the acute scarcity.

Fears of shortage

But the storage tanks built upstream the two temple towns are now said to be having water to last only for the next 40 or 50 days after which the district administration fears that the two towns might suffer another bout of acute scarcity if the monsoon fails.

Given the prolonged dry spell for the last four years, it is most unlikely that the monsoon would be any vigorous in the next month or two and this might result in further depletion of the storage levels of Somasila and Kandaleru reservoirs--the two major sources on which the fate of not only the two important temple towns but Chennai too depends.

Widespread concern

This is causing concern to the authorities, though they still nurse hopes of an improved monsoon before the deadline. Rather surprisingly, the official level meeting between the Andhra Pradesh and the Tamil Nadu officials and engineers scheduled for October 11 at Tirupati was a non-starter. This was the first summit to be arranged between the officials after the Tamil Nadu and the Andhra Pradesh Chief Ministers discussed the issue threadbare at Hyderabad. No official explanation is immediately available as to the cancellation of the meeting.

What is more, of late even the TTD is mulling over taking the Telugu Ganga water to Tirumala to meet the increasing demand of the pilgrims.

All this point to the fact that all eyes are set on the Telugu Ganga and the completion of its unfinished portions on a war-footing without any further delay, using the reasonably good allocations made for it in the current fiscal by the new Government.

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Temple towns anxious for Telugu Ganga water