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Govt notice on fresh allocation of Krishna water triggers row
The notification, dated October 6, was issued four days before the issuance of the schedule for assembly elections in Telangana
The latest gazette notification issued by the Narendra Modi-led central government updating the terms of reference of the Krishna Water Disputes Tribunal-II to reallocate the Krishna river waters between Telangana and Andhra Pradesh is snowballing into a major controversy between the two Telugu states, even as political parties are seeking to make it an election issue.
The notification, dated October 6, was issued four days before the issuance of the schedule for assembly elections in Telangana, as it was announced during a rally by PM Narendra Modi held at Mahabubnagar on October 1.
The move is being seen as the Bharatiya Janata Party’s attempt to seek political mileage ahead of the November 30 assembly elections in Telangana. Speaking at a farmers’ convention of the party in Hyderabad, senior BJP leader and advisor to Union Jal Sakthi ministry Vedire Sriram said one of the major issues on which the Telangana movement was built was lack of irrigation facilities in the region.
“Lot of injustice was done to Telangana in the allocation of Krishna water. Even after Telangana was formed, it could not utilise 170 tmc ft (thousand million cubic feet) of Krishna water due to delay in completion of projects in last nine years,” he said.
Stating that Telangana accounts for 68.5% of Krishna river basin, Sriram said the state should have got 550 tmc ft out of the total available water of 811 tmc ft. “But the Bharat Rashtra Samithi government had accepted the tribunal allocation of only 299 tmc ft... as a result several projects like Bima, Nettempadu, Kalwakurthy and Palamuru-Rangareddy haven’t got assured water,” he said.
Sriram added that the Modi government issued orders for updating the terms of reallocation of water between the two states. “The delay in the issuance of notification was only because the BRS government failed to withdraw the case filed in the Supreme Court in 2014 on the reallocation of water,” he said.
State finance minister T Harish Rao, however, said: “It was only because of the long-drawn battle by chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao that the Centre agreed to refer the issue to the tribunal for reallocation of Krishna waters”.
“This is a victory for KCR, a victory for Telangana. Hopefully, we will get better share of water so that our projects will get their rightful allocation,” he said and asked the Centre to fix “a timeline for the KWDT-II to resolve the issue in a year or two.”
Andhra Pradesh upset
The notification changing terms of reference of the KWDT-II, better known as Brajesh Kumar tribunal, has come as a big setback for Andhra Pradesh, as any reallocation of waters in Krishna river will affect its interests. It will also be a major embarrassment to the ruling YSR Congress Party, at a time when the state is set to go for assembly elections early next year.
Soon after the issuance of notification, chief minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to direct the concerned authorities “not to proceed further” on the terms of reference given to the KWDT-II.
“The revised terms of reference of the tribunal restricting water sharing to only Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, excluding other two basin states of Maharashtra and Karnataka is not only unscientific but is also against the overall judicious use of water resources as a national asset,” Jagan said.
State irrigation minister Ambati Rambabu said the state government will challenge the notification by filing a special leave petition in the Supreme Court soon.
On Wednesday, the Andhra Pradesh government moved the Brajesh Kumar tribunal, seeking time to study and consider “the impact and legality” of the fresh terms of reference given to the tribunal, people familiar with the matter said.
The Andhra government pointed out that the gazette notification talked about diversion of Godavari waters to Krishna basin and allocating proportionate share of water to Telangana. “This has to be dealt with by the Godavari Water Disputes Tribunal and not the Krishna tribunal,” it argued.
The tribunal, while accepting its request, asked the state government to file its response by November 20, after serving a copy of the same to Telangana by November 15. The case was posted for hearing on November 22 and 23 for any further orders or direction.
