The Telangana Government has presented a strong case for its judicious share in Krishna waters before the committee appointed by Union Water Resources Ministry to help Krishna River Management Board (KRMB) in preparing the working manual for sharing waters between Telangana and Andhra Pradesh.
The committee led by former chairman of Central Water Commission A.K. Bajaj and comprising scientist of the National Institute of Hydrology (Roorkee) R.P. Pandey, Chief Engineer of Central Electricity Authority P.K. Shukla, Director (Hydrology) of CWC N.N. Rai and former chief engineer of CWC D.K. Mehta were given a detailed PowerPoint presentation by Special Chief Secretary (Irrigation) S.K. Joshi for more than an hour here on Monday.
Mr. Joshi explained in detail along with statistics the injustice being done to Telangana in utilisation of Krishna waters since 1956. He also placed before the committee the status of irrigation in Hyderabad state before the formation of Andhra Pradesh and also the programmes taken up by it and how the projects for Telangana region planned earlier were shelved by AP.
He also pointed out the provision in the Reorganisation Act, 1956, which would make it amply clear that benefits of all irrigation projects taken up before should be extended as planned. Mr. Joshi highlighted the fact that how Telangana region had lost 174 TMC ft water share in Krishna after shelving/restricting Upper Krishna, Bhima and Tungabhadra projects planned by Hyderabad government.
Bias alleged
The Special Chief Secretary also argued before the Bajaj Committee that the unified AP Government did not protect the interests of Telangana people before Bachawat and Brijesh Kumar Tribunals by discriminating against the region to benefit the other two regions. In the process, natural justice was denied to Telangana as international practices in water sharing were violated, he said.
By considering any of the criteria of catchment area, cultivable land, poverty, backwardness and population, Telangana region would get 450 TMC ft out of 811 TMC ft assured water allocated to combined AP by Bachawat Tribunal, but in vain.
Mr. Joshi requested the committee to prepare operational procedures and protocol for KRMB keeping in mind the injustice done to Telangana.
