Bifurcation will lead to water disputes, says farmers’ leader

‘Centre could do little to reconcile the differences'

October 28, 2013 01:11 pm | Updated 01:11 pm IST - VIJAYAWADA:

Expressing resentment over the hasty manner in which Congress high command sought to divide the State, Confederation of Indian Farmers’ Associations founder member Akkineni Bhavani Prasad said bifurcation was bound to give rise to new river water disputes.

No existing river dispute was solved by a host of tribunals and the Central government could do little to reconcile the differences. Bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh would give rise to disputes between Seemandhra and Telangana over sharing of Krishna and Godavari river waters.

If bifurcation becomes inevitable, the Centre should take over the projects through an Act of Parliament and allocate water in consultation with either the Central Water Commission so that no animosity was created among people of the two regions, he observed.

Addressing a meeting on “Issues arising in sharing of Krishna and Godavari river waters on bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh” organised by Friends on Same Wave Length, city-based community service forum, on Sunday,

Mr. Bhavani Prasad said the farmers of Coastal Andhra and Rayalaseema were rightly concerned with the threat bifurcation posed to their livelihood as sharing of waters from Nagarjuna Sagar, Srisailam and Pulichintala projects which are situated on the borders of Seemandhra and Rayalaseema would become extremely cumbersome. It’s a situation where two governments would be vying with each other for allocations from each one of the projects.

Polavaram

The national project status to Polavaram would serve no purpose as funds might come from the Centre but dealing with submergence of 1 lakh acres in Khammam district, thousands of acres in Chhattisgarh and Odisha too would be a formidable task. Power supply sharing will also be a problem. FOSWL city president M. Lingeswara Rao, advisor T. Sobhanadri, treasurer K. Narendra Babu and others spoke.

0 / 0
Sign in to unlock member-only benefits!
  • Access 10 free stories every month
  • Save stories to read later
  • Access to comment on every story
  • Sign-up/manage your newsletter subscriptions with a single click
  • Get notified by email for early access to discounts & offers on our products
Sign in

Comments

Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.

We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of The Hindu and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.