Water Level in Jurala Fell to Dead Storage Level

The Telangana state government has sought the release of 2 TMCs of water from the Narayanapur dam in Karnataka to the Jurala dam in Mahbubn-agar to meet drinking wa-ter and irrigation needs this summer.The Jurala project is the first project in TS on river Krishna to receive water from upstream Narayan-pur.Farmers in undivided Mahbubnagar district have sown crops over an extent of 40,000 acres with hope resting on Jurala water.

However, the water level in Jurala fell to dead storage level. With this, officials stopped the release of water for agriculture, due to which crops are drying up.Farmers are pleading on to the streets to save their crops from drying up by releasing water from the Narayanpur dam.Irrigation Minister T. Harish Rao pursued the case with the Karnataka government last week to release water. Though Karnataka had agreed to release 1 TMC of water from Narayanpur last week, it did not release orders to this effect so far.

As a result, irrigation officials at the Narayanpur dam refused to release water. Chief Secretary S.K Joshi, on Friday, had written to the Principal Secretary of the Irrigation Department, Karnataka, Mr Rakesh Singh, requesting him to release water immediately to save crops and meet the drinking water needs in summer.

Mr Joshi said, "In view of current adverse weather conditions prevailing in Telangana, it is requested that 2 TMCs of water be released from Narayanpur to Jurala for drinking water and other purposes. I request you to pass on the necessary instructions to your engineers for coordination with their counterparts in Telangana."