El Niño is real. The evasion is political.
BRS’s S Niranjan Reddy says the Congress government is hiding behind El Niño to starve fields and let AP sip Krishna. IMD confirms El Niño; KRMB shows the fight is live. The BJP-led Centre’s board defers, the TDP-run AP demands more, and Telangana is told to wait politely.
The Krishna water-sharing decision was deferred as Telangana pressed for project-wise allocations and restrictions on diversions.
Content type: analysis
S Niranjan Reddy put it plainly on August 24: stop scaring farmers and run the pumps — PRLIS, Kalwakurthy, Jurala. If you can’t give water, say so and step down. Those are his words; the numbers he threw — half the farmers holding back, 5,000 cusecs reaching Jurala, AP lifting 12 TMC a day — are his claims, on his podium. According to the report of his presser, he also wants Telangana to drag AP’s diversions at Velugodu and Nallamala Sagar before the KRMB and get them stopped.
El Niño, for the record, is not invented. The IMD said in late May that neutral ENSO was transitioning to El Niño, and that conditions were expected to strengthen through the monsoon. The Congress government’s own June review leaned on that risk: pro‑rata releases, drought alert, crop diversification. Sensible planning language on paper. On the ground, BRS says it’s become a ration‑water‑now, regret‑later excuse.
Meanwhile the BJP‑appointed KRMB committee met the same day and punted. Decision on Srisailam and Nagarjuna Sagar use: deferred, “drinking water first” because El Niño. Telangana pressed for a 50:50 basis for drinking water. The TDP government in Andhra Pradesh wanted 47 TMC till October and said Telangana had agreed to 22 TMC through Pothireddypadu; Telangana’s engineer‑in‑chief said AP had already used 10 TMC over. Competing official claims, no minutes published yet, and a familiar pattern: AP asks, AP draws, the board delays.
Here is what is established beyond podiums. One: El Niño is real this season — that’s the IMD. Two: the Krishna fight is live — that’s the KRMB record of a meeting that could not decide. Three: Telangana has formally asked for project‑wise Krishna allocations (including 90 TMC for PRLIS) and for curbs on AP’s outside‑basin diversions — that’s in filings. What is not on the public record in this material are the daily flow books to prove or disprove the 12‑TMC‑a‑day drawal or the claimed 5,000‑cusec inflow.
So the politics writes itself. The Congress government in Telangana cites El Niño to keep a tight fist on irrigation while telling farmers to diversify. The TDP government in Andhra presses its summer pipeline as usual. The BJP‑led Centre’s board defers a decision when a decision is the job. Telangana asked for a 50:50 drinking‑water rule; the Congress government in Karnataka has managed firmer lines on its own rivers when it suited it. Different state, same party, very selective muscle.
Reddy’s ask is basic: run the lift schemes and take AP’s drawals to the regulator. Until the Congress government does both with paperwork attached, El Niño stays the cover story and the Krishna keeps flowing the other way. The BJP‑led Centre’s board can schedule another deferment if it needs something to do.