Nalgonda: Andhra police swoop on Telangana cops; barricade Nagarjuna Sagar dam's 13th gate, release water

Nalgonda: Tension gripped Nagarjuna Sagar dam after Andhra Pradesh police overpowered Telangana cops and barricaded the 13th gate of the project.

The incident happened around 2 am when the police personnel were busy making arrangements for the polling for assembly elections on Thursday.

At around 1 am on Thursday, a large number of AP police personnel reached the dam. They allegedly pushed aside the special protection force of Telangana. They fenced the gate with barbed wires and restrained the entry of Telangana police into the barrage.

The AP Irrigation authorities also released water into the canal, officials said.

''When Telangana police were busy with election duty, AP police resorted to this act. It was pre-planned. They came to draw water without asking the Telangana Irrigation department,'' Telangana officials said.

Additional police personnel from Telangana were deployed following the incident, a senior police official said.

As per the provisions of the AP Reorganisation Act, Nagarjunasagar dam is controlled and supervised by Telangana, while Andhra Pradesh was given the control over Srisailam project. The projects are joint storage facilities and meet power generation, irrigation, and drinking needs in the two states.

Meanwhile, Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee president A Revanth Reddy alleged that the midnight episode on Nagarjunasagar was part of a high drama enacted by the Bharat Rashtra Samithi government in collusion with the Jagan Mohan Reddy government in Andhra only to kick up Telangana sentiment hours before the polling.

“There was no immediate provocation and it happened all of a sudden. The AP police had created a hungama at Nagarajunasagar only to see that the BRS government gained political mileage in the elections. The BRS wants to create an impression that only it can protect the state's interests,” Revanth Reddy said.