CM's plea for Alamatti water

By Our Special Correspondent

HYDERABAD, JULY 25. Noting the poor water levels in major reservoirs with concern, the Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister, Mr. N. Chandrababu Naidu, today sent an SOS to his Karnataka counterpart asking the latter to spare ``whatever little possible'' from the storage in Alamatti project for Srisailam and Nagarjunasagar.

There has been no improvement in the inflows to these projects even with the monsoon season passing through the second month.

According to sources in the Irrigation Department, the initial response from Karnataka is that they would examine the ``distress call'' made by Mr. Naidu for saving the kharif crops under the right and left bank canals of Nagarjunasagar and under Krishna delta.

The Chief Minister was anguished that the storage was precarious, remaining at 797 ft MSL and 498.5 ft MSL in Srisailam and Nagarjunasagar respectively, the lowest points in recent years, as against their maximum of 885 ft and 590 ft.

Irrigation officials, however, are hopeful that the situation may change in the next few days when Narayanpur dam, another project in Karnataka lying below Alamatti, will be full and in a position to release the surplus.

A Vidyuth Soudha official said that they were operating the hydel stations using the available water in Srisailam and Nagarjunasagar and might stop the activity any day if the situation did not improve.

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