TDP district president and Mylavaram MLA Devineni Umamaheswara Rao on Friday demanded that the verdict of Brijesh Kumar Tribunal on sharing of Krishna river water by Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, and Maharashtra should be reviewed in view of the danger of Krishna delta turning into a desert. He blamed former Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy for the impending crisis by saying it was he who gave a written undertaking to the tribunal that Andhra Pradesh had no need to claim its share of surplus waters of the river.
Dig at Union Ministers
Mr. Umamaheswara Rao also accused the Union Ministers Sushil Kumar Shinde, Jairam Ramesh and Veerappa Moily of conspiring against the interests of Andhra Pradesh. “They have successfully deprived Andhra Pradesh of its rightful share of the river water while the Members of Parliament of Telangana and Seemandhra regions fought over the creation of new State,” Mr. Umamaheswara Rao said at a press conference. The TDP leader said Karnataka and Maharashtra were obviously elated with the verdict delivered by Justice Brijesh Kumar as he did not object to increasing the height of Almatti dam from 519.60 to 524.20 meters, which would spell doom to about 18,00,000 acres under Krishna delta and Nagarjuna Sagar.
A sizable quantity of Krishna river water was earmarked for some ultra-mega power projects in Karnataka and Maharashtra to the detriment of the agriculture sector in Andhra Pradesh.
The BKT ruling jeopardized the future of Srisailam (left bank canal), Veligonda, Handri Neeva and Galeru Nagari projects in Seemandhra region and Nettempadu, Koilsagar and Kalwakurthy in Telangana. An investment of nearly Rs. 35,000 crore made on them might be wasted if Karnataka and Maharashtra impound more than their legitimate shares of Krishna river water. Unfortunately, the BKT brushed aside the objections raised by Andhra Pradesh to raise the height of Almatti dam as the A.P Government failed in presenting a strong case against it.
‘Parties must unite’
It is time that political parties should sink their differences and come to a common platform and collectively take up the Brijesh Kumar Tribunal judgement on Krishna water sharing in the Parliament as the judgement is grossly against the State of Andhra Pradesh, said YSR Congress farmers’ wing leader and member of ICAR M.V.S. Nagireddy.
Loaded against State
Addressing a press conference here on Friday, Mr. Nagi Reddy said that the judgement was highly loaded against the State and if implemented, the Krishna delta will not receive any water for irrigation and Hyderabad and many other cities will run short of drinking water.
