The Telangana government has contended before the Brijesh Kumar tribunal (KWDT-II) that Srisailam Left Bank Canal (SLBC) has been left to rely upon only the surplus waters of River Krishna even after the promise of assured water in lieu of water diversion from Polavaram and later from the savings out of modernisation of Nagarjunasagar canals.
During the cross-examination of witness for Andhra Pradesh that continued before the tribunal in New Delhi on Wednesday, senior counsel for Telangana V. Ravinder Rao elicited the facts in the form of witness’ responses in support of contention of K.V. Subba Rao, a retired irrigation engineer, who said that Srisailam Right Bank Canal (SEBC) and SLBC projects were conceived at once by erstwhile AP to utilise 45 TMC ft of assured water augmented through the diversion of Godavari waters to Krishna basin from Polavaram project.
He also admitted that the Central Water Commission (CWC) did not accept the proposal then since Polavaram project was not cleared and the then AP government had proposed to allocate 26.22 TMC ft of assured water to SLBC from the savings due to modernisation of Nagarjunasagar canals. However, even that water was not allocated to SLBC as the then AP dispensation decided to utilise the water saved from modernisation to meet the needs of gap ayacut of Nagarjunasagar, the Telangana counsel said.
As if that was not enough, even the regenerated water as envisaged in the KWDT-I award was earmarked to SRBC, which is outside the Krishna basin, instead of giving it to SLBC lying in the river basin, the Telangana counsel pointed out. Mr. Subba Rao too admitted the fact that 11 TMC ft regenerated water was allocated to SRBC. The AP witness, however, denied the suggestion that justification for Guru Raghavendra project comprising 12 lift irrigation schemes, conceived to serve the 50,000 acres of gap ayacut under Tungabhadra Right Low Level Canal (LLC), was not correct. He said that against the allocation 24 TMC ft to LLC, only 18.5 TMC ft was being realised and the LI scheme under Guru Raghavendra project were planned to utilise 5.5 TMC of river water.
Further, the witness also admitted before the tribunal that the total diversion of 331 TMC ft of Krishna water outside the basin and the entire quantity was being utilised by AP through major projects.
