Telangana Bharatiya Janata Party on Saturday requested the Union Water Resources Ministry to notify the jurisdiction of Krishna River Management Board (KRMB) to protect the legitimate interests of the State with regard to their rightful share in River Krishna waters.
In a communication to Jal Shakti Minister Gajendra Singh Shekawat, party president Bandi Sanjay Kumar explained that the Krishna Water Dispute Tribunal (KWDT-I) has awarded 811 TMC of water to be utilized by united Andhra Pradesh while KWDT-II (Brijesh Kumar Tribunal) has given new award in the year 2010, but has not been published yet as the matter is pending in Supreme Court.
At present, the utilization is as per the KWDT-I award only. The A.P. Reorganization Act (APRA) -2014 ensured that KRMB and Godavari River Management Board (GRMB) maintain the projects and regulate water distribution for both States. However, jurisdiction of both these Boards has not yet been notified by the Centre.
After bifurcation, both States had worked out a temporary arrangement for water distribution of 811 TMC and this is where Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao (KCR) had “utterly failed to protect the interests of Telangana and its people”, as he agreed for 299 TMC and 512 TMC for A.P., when it was eligible to get 555 TMC because 68.5% of the catchment area of Krishna Basin lies within Telangana, (68.5% of 811 TMC).
Mr. Sanjay Kumar said the orders issued by AP for construction of Rayalaseema Lift Irrigation Scheme (RLIS) aimed at pumping 3 TMC ft of water, upgradation of Pothireddypadu head regulator canal system to draw 80,000 cusecs of water, both from foreshore of Srisailam reservoir and other upgradation works in existing canal system of Galeru-Nagari project to draw another 70,000 cusecs of water from Srisailam are “highly objectionable, illegal and are in violation of the water allocations made by KWDT-I”.
AP did not bother to obtain the approval of the Apex Council and KRMB while KCR too had “failed to act in time” and allowed for the work to proceed by “deliberately not attending a meeting called to discuss this” and now 50% of RLIS is completed, he charged.
“Both KCR and AP CM Jaganmohan Reddy are hand-in-glove and are only trying to take political mileage out of these issues. They are not bothered to solve the issues and protect the interests of their people. KCR tries to rake up these issues only to get political mileage,” maintained the Karimnagar MP.
He also pointed out that KCR took six years to withdraw the case against the KWDT tribunal in SC, otherwise it would have heard the matter by now. TS interests could only be protected whenever the the new award of KWDT-II or of the new tribunal is published for regulating the allocation of waters, the communication added.
