Now that the Supreme Court has conceded the appeal of the State government to withdraw its petition seeking a direction to the Centre to reallocate Krishna river water between Telangana, AP, Karnataka and Maharashtra, the State government was awaiting the SC order copy to take up the matter with the Centre.
Sources said the State government will ask fresh terms of reference to the existing Krishna Water Disputes Tribunal - II to reallocate water between Telangana and AP only after the copy was received. The government will not involve Karnataka and Maharashtra though the two States were also made party when the petition was filed in 2015.
The Centre had offered to refer the request of Telangana to a water disputes tribunal if the State government had withdrawn its case in the Apex court. It was shortly after formation of the State in 2014 that the Telangana government had made out a case to the Centre seeking reallocation of water between the four States but there was no response for over a year. As a result, Telangana moved the court in 2015.
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Telangana had made a detailed case listing out the injustice to the region in water sharing in the combined State. It was highlighted that the new State had only 35 % share in water though the river flowed 68.5 % of its full course in Telangana. Of the total ayacut in the river basin in the combined State, Telangana’s share was 62.5 % and Andhra Pradesh had 37.5 % but enjoyed 65 % water share.
The indifference of the Centre was brought to the notice of Union Jal Shakti Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat by Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao at the Apex Council meeting on river water disputes between AP and Telangana last year when the Minister expressed helplessness on referring the matter to the tribunal in view of the court case.