VIJAYAWADA/ HYDERABAD: The task of allocating river water is that of the river water tribunal and not that of this committee, said A.K. Bajaj, chairman of the Central Expert Committee, constituted to prepare an operation manual for the supply of allocated water to Andhra Pradesh and Telangana.
The expert committee, which toured Telangana and A.P. in the last three days, left for New Delhi on Wednesday evening, convinced that the disputes between the two States on Krishna water sharing were not that easy to resolve.
Mr. Bajaj, a former chairman of the Central Water Commission, told a brief wrap-up meeting of officials of the two States at the irrigation headquarters of the Telangana government in Hyderabad on Wednesday that they had initially expected to thrash out the differences easily. But, it was not to be as the two governments took diametrically opposite stands on water sharing, sources said.
The committee met the irrigation officials of Telangana separately here on Monday and those of AP in Vijayawada on Tuesday. The panel was deputed by the Union Ministry of Water Resources to suggest a mechanism for making the Krishna River Management Board discharge its duties in line with the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act.
Quoting Mr. Bajaj, sources said the committee would have to take a hard look at the issues raised by the States. It would come back next month after perusing the data supplied by them. Briefing reporters later, Mr. Bajaj said the issues were not insurmountable if both States cooperated.
He said the States presented their stakes on diversion of Godavari water to Krishna basin but the allocation of water to compensate for inter-basin transfer should be done by the water disputes tribunal. If the Ministry asked the committee to arbitrate, the latter would make a temporary arrangement.
TS cries foul
The silence of the committee on the demand of Telangana to compensate diversion by A.P. of Godavari water to Krishna basin through the Pattiseema project irked the Telangana government.
Its advisor on irrigation, R. Vidyasagar Rao told reporters that he would lodge a complaint with the Secretary of the Ministry in New Delhi on Friday.
He said the Ministry had been telling Telangana government that the committee would consider its demand for 78.2 tmcft in the Krishna river for diversion by AP not only from Pattiseema but also Polavaram. But, the committee did not speak a word though the demand was one of the terms of reference made to it by an official communication.
He expressed anger that the committee was mandated to arbitrarily fix water share for two States from common reservoirs on Krishna, pending the decision of the tribunal which might take years.
He recalled that the committee had admitted it was mandated to fix the shares on Monday but changed the tune after touring Vijayawada.
