Godavari, Krishna river boards to be in place soon

The Central government will constitute river management boards for Godavari and Krishna as prescribed in the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act, 2014, in 10 days’ time for management and development of water resources in the two successor States – Andhra Pradesh and Telangana.

Chairman of the Central Water Commission (CWC) A.B. Pandya, who was on a visit to the city on Tuesday, took up the matter with the Chief Secretaries of the two State Governments and was understood to have asked the successor States to finalise their nominees for the boards on Godavari and Krishna.

Apex council

An Apex Council with Union Water Resources Minister as Chairman and Chief Ministers of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana as members will supervise the functioning of Godavari River Management Board and Krishna River Management Board.

According to the reorganisation act, the boards will have chairpersons appointed by the Centre, two members each to be nominated by the successor States with one technical member not below the rank of Chief Engineer and the other administrative member, one expert each to be nominated by the Centre and a full-time member secretary each not below the rank of Chief Engineer in CWC to be appointed by the Centre.

Principal Secretary (Irrigation) of Telangana B. Aravind Reddy said the file related to members to be nominated by the State Government was in circulation and the names would be intimated to the Centre in a few days.

Water release protocols

The two boards would decide the water release protocols for the projects based on the two rivers afresh as the decisions taken by the combined State were not binding on the successor States since the protocols were for only one State.

Even the GO issued by the N. Kiran Kumar Reddy Government in February on release of 10 TMC ft water from Nagarjunasagar to Krishna delta would stand invalid now.

Practically, there were no issues in sharing of Godavari waters, but availability of water in Krishna could pose difficulties, particularly in times of distress-sharing, a Telangana minister said.