The Andhra Pradesh Government has a new take on the controversial Swarna mini hydel-power project coming up through the Rajolibanda Diversion Scheme (RDS).

The state said in a letter to the Karnataka government that the project would drastically reduce inflow to Andhra Pradesh’s Mahbubnagar district.

The project, being implemented by a brother-in-law of chief minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy, was used by the Opposition Telugu Desam Party to embarrass the government. The TDP alleged that because the project was a venture of a close relative of the CM, the government was turning a blind eye to the fact that it affected the interests of Mahbubnagar farmers.

The CM had then prevailed upon the project’s promoter to give up the project. Now, one month later, the state has written to the Karnataka government to stop construction of the project immediately since it violated the Krishna Water Dispute Tribunal award.

Principal Secretary, Irrigation, C V S K Sarma, wrote a letter to his Karnataka counterpart on Thursday saying the project would drastically reduce inflow to Mahbubnagar district. The letter alleged that Karnataka had overdrawn its share of water by four to six times after developing an “illegal ayacut” of 22,000 acres.

According to the KWDT, Karnataka’s share in Rajolibanda Diversion Scheme was 1.2 tmc ft of water to cultivate an ayacut of 5,890 acres and AP’s 15.9 tmc ft for an ayacut of 87,000 acres in Mahbubnagar district. Due to Karnataka’s “illegal” action inflow to Mahbubnagar had dwindled, the letter said.

The Swarna project would further affect Mahbubnagar as a higher discharge of 4,765 cusecs was designed for its canal compared to 850 cusecs for the Mahbubnagar canal.

Mr Sarma said it was regretful that Karnataka’s irrigation minister did not respond to Andhra Pradesh Irrigation Minister P Lakshmaiah’s letter protesting against the Swarna project.