Bifurcation will lead to water disputes, says farmers’ leader

‘Centre could do little to reconcile the differences'

Expressing resentment over the hasty manner in which Congress high command sought to divide the State, Confederation of Indian Farmers’ Associations founder member Akkineni Bhavani Prasad said bifurcation was bound to give rise to new river water disputes.

No existing river dispute was solved by a host of tribunals and the Central government could do little to reconcile the differences. Bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh would give rise to disputes between Seemandhra and Telangana over sharing of Krishna and Godavari river waters.

If bifurcation becomes inevitable, the Centre should take over the projects through an Act of Parliament and allocate water in consultation with either the Central Water Commission so that no animosity was created among people of the two regions, he observed.

Addressing a meeting on “Issues arising in sharing of Krishna and Godavari river waters on bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh” organised by Friends on Same Wave Length, city-based community service forum, on Sunday,

Mr. Bhavani Prasad said the farmers of Coastal Andhra and Rayalaseema were rightly concerned with the threat bifurcation posed to their livelihood as sharing of waters from Nagarjuna Sagar, Srisailam and Pulichintala projects which are situated on the borders of Seemandhra and Rayalaseema would become extremely cumbersome. It’s a situation where two governments would be vying with each other for allocations from each one of the projects.

Polavaram

The national project status to Polavaram would serve no purpose as funds might come from the Centre but dealing with submergence of 1 lakh acres in Khammam district, thousands of acres in Chhattisgarh and Odisha too would be a formidable task. Power supply sharing will also be a problem. FOSWL city president M. Lingeswara Rao, advisor T. Sobhanadri, treasurer K. Narendra Babu and others spoke.