The Andhra Pradesh Government is understood to have decided to go ahead with its decision to file a special leave petition before the Supreme Court challenging the award of Justice Brijesh Kumar headed Krishna Water Disputes Tribunal – II.
The State, according to sources, is preparing grounds to raise issues related to deficit sharing as well as the operational protocol for project specific allocations as specified by the Tribunal. “The draft SLP is almost ready and we will file it in the Apex Court before January 17,” a senior official of the AP Irrigation Department told The Hindu .
The decision comes in the light of the dismissal of the SLP filed by Telangana Government seeking reallocation of Krishna water among the four riparian States. The State had been insisting on reallocation of water among the four riparian States with Andhra Pradesh being the lowest riparian State.
Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu had recently urged the Krishna River Management Board Chairman H.S. Haldar, who recently visited Vijayawada, to protect the interests of Andhra Pradesh which was faced with short supply of water as there was no availability from the upper riparian States. “The Tribunal recommended evolving operational protocol and project wise allocations to be confined to the two States. But how could these issues be sorted out in isolation with the upper riparian States of Maharashtra and Karnataka?” the official asked.
