Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao said that he would personally appear before the Krishna Water Disputes Tribunal headed by Justice Brijesh Kumar seeking higher share of river water for Telangana in the context of its formation as a new State.
Replying to the debate on motion of thanks to the Governor’s address in the Assembly, Mr. Rao said consecutive governments of the integrated State had always deceived Telangana in the matter of river water allocation.
There was ample scope for getting an additional allocation of 200 to 300 tmcft of water from the Krishna, but the potential was never exploited.
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Telangana had an assured allocation of 300 tmcft and a surplus of 77 to 80 tmcft in Krishna through construction of Kalwakurthy and Nettempad lift irrigation schemes and Srisailam left branch canal. But the region got only half of the 132 tmcft allocation in SLBC alone.
Expressing the government’s resolve to step up storage in minor irrigation systems dependent on Krishna, Mr. Rao said the criminal intent of the previous regimes reduced the capacity of these sources from 93 tmcft to 33 tmcft.
Therefore, the government had decided to fill all the tanks in Krishna and Godavari basins to create a storage of 200 tmcft by lift-cum-gravity. Hyderabad would also get drinking water from Krishna, leaving Singur project to the irrigation needs of Medak and Ranga Reddy districts.
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On the Godavari, Mr. Rao said the government was committed to take up the construction of two or three reservoirs upstream of Kadam project whose capacity would also be increased.
The government also proposed to complete Kantanapalli and Devadula projects with a capacity of 50 tmcft each to create irrigation facilities for Warangal as the district was not getting enough water from Sriramsagar main canal due to lower capacity.