Southern States - Karnataka   

Govt. unhappy over delay on tribunal

By Our Special Correspondent

YADGIR (Gulbarga Dt.) Feb. 18. The State Government has taken serious exception to the inordinate delay in the constitution of a new tribunal to fix the share of the surplus Krishna waters among the riparian states of Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, and Maharashtra.

Addressing a press conference here after inspecting a bridge-cum-barrage being constructed on the outskirts of Yadgir town, the Water Resources Minister, H.K. Patil, said it was surprising that the Union Government had not acted on the proposals submitted by all the riparian States for the constitution of a new tribunal.

The tribunal has to allocate surplus waters under Scheme B of the Bachawat Tribunal award.

He said Karnataka submitted a proposal requesting the Union Government to constitute a tribunal five months ago. Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra had also submitted proposals.

Mr. Patil pointed out that the Supreme Court had clearly stated that the Centre should constitute a tribunal even if one of the riparian States filed a complaint pertaining to the sharing of surplus waters.

To a query, Mr. Patil said he could not understand the reluctance on the part of the Union Government to constitute the tribunal.

He did not agree with the questioner that the Union Government was delaying the constitution of the tribunal to please the Telugu Desam Party Government in Andhra Pradesh, since the party was supporting the NDA Government at the Centre.

"Andhra Pradesh, besides submitting the proposal for the constitution of a tribunal, also announced its decision to take an all-party delegation to the Centre to request the early constitution of the tribunal."

He said the Chief Minister, S.M. Krishna had already taken up the matter with the Union Government since the tribunal would help resolve the disputes relating to the Krishna and the Mahadayi river schemes.

At present, there was no plan to take an all-party delegation to the Union Government in this regard. A decision on this would be taken later.

Mr. Patil said he had broached the subject of constituting the tribunal at the Irrigation ministers' conference in New Delhi recently, and hoped that the Centre would concede the demand at the earliest.

On the financial and physical progress achieved in the Krishna Basin, and the Upper Krishna Project in particular, Mr. Patil said while the expenditure since the inception of the UKP up to the end of 1999 was Rs. 4,756.17 crore, after the Congress party returned to power in 1999, the expenditure up to the end of December 2002 was Rs. 4,027 crore.

Similarly, commendable progress had been achieved in the physical progress of work and, so far, 5.43 lakh acres in the Krishna Basin had been brought under the irrigation network. In the UKP, 3.85 lakh acres had been brought under irrigation as against the potential of 15 lakh acres.

The minister said he was confident that the remaining 12 lakh acres would be brought under irrigation next year since most of the ongoing projects in the UKP were nearing completion. The full irrigation potential in the Krishna Basin would be achieved by the end of 2005, he added.

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