NGT takes KRMB report on RLIS into cognisance

TS urges the river board to provide with a DPR copy of AP’s project

Telangana government has requested the Krishna River Management Board (KRMB) to provide it with a copy of the Detailed Project Report of Rayalaseema Lift Irrigation Scheme (RLIS) taken up by Andhra Pradesh to divert water from Srisailam reservoir. In a letter addressed to Chairman of KRMB M.P. Singh on Monday, Engineer-in-Chief (General) of Irrigation C. Muralidhar said the AP government had told the National Green Tribunal that it had submitted copies of DPR to Central Water Commission (CWC) on June 30 and to KRMB with all the necessary details on July 1. The submission was made by AP through its counter affidavit filed in NGT on July 22. The ENC requested the river board Chairman to provide a copy of the DPR of RLIS at the earliest so that Telangana could offer its views. Meanwhile, the Southern Zone Bench of NGT in Chennai took into cognisance a report submitted by the KRMB on the status of RLIS at the head works site in Kurnool district in AP. The three-member committee of the river board visited the work site on August 11 and submitted its report to the Tribunal following the Tribunal orders in a contempt petition filed by the Telangana government alleging that AP was carrying out huge quantum of work in violation of its (Tribunal) orders. According to information reaching here through the counsel for petitioners, as sources put, NGT had made serious observations on the attitude of the AP government in carrying out work on the project in violation of its orders.