PALAKKAD: Officials manning the inter-State Parambikulam Aliyar Project (PAP) agreement said on Saturday that Tamil Nadu had agreed to release 550 mcft of water for Chitturpuzha to meet its water requirement for March.

The officials said Tamil Nadu had already started releasing the quantity of 350 mcft water agreed for the first half of March. Two-hundred mcft of water will be released in the second half of March to save the standing crops in the Chitturpuzha irrigation project area.

They said as the last meeting of the Joint Water Regulatory Board (JWRB) had failed to reach an understanding on sharing of the waters in the remaining months of the current water year ending in June, the officials at the local level here held discussions to meet the urgent water requirement in March, to save the standing crops.

They said the Kerala officials had sent an invitation to their Tamil Nadu counterparts to hold the next meeting of the Board immediately to settle the remaining water-sharing issues. The last meeting held in Palakkad recently had ended without taking any decision on settling the accounts of water supplied so far and to decide on the future sharing of water during the remaining period of the water year.

The officials said Kerala had asked for 450 mcft water for the first half of March, but Tamil Nadu agreed to release only 350 mcft.

The officials said the total eligibility of water from PAP for Chitturpuzha in the current water year is 13.541 tmcft. But it had received only 6.35 tmcft water till now.

As per the PAP agreement, Chitturpuzha should get 7.25 tmcft water every year at the Manacadavu weir. Since it was a good water year this year, Kerala should get an additional quantity of 695 mcft as per agreement along with its annual entitlement of 7.25 tmcft.

The remaining quantity is the backlog of the previous years when Tamil Nadu did not supply the annual quantity of 7.25 tmcft. The talks between the two States failed mainly on the question of the supply of the backlog.

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