Saturday, October 3, 2020

“Hand over operational control of Srisailam reservoir to Telangana” ..... Chief Minister Telangana K Chandrashekhar Rao

 “Hand over operational control of

Srisailam reservoir to Telangana”

Chief Minister Telangana K Chandrashekhar Rao

            Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao said that every State of the Indian Union has a constitutional right to get a fair and equitable allocation of river waters. He said that, even after seven years of its formation, Telangana State is still waiting to know its legitimate share of waters. KCR demanded to know the reason for such injustice to a legitimate right of the State of Telangana, and requested Government of India to take immediate steps to address this matter in a time bound manner.

KCR also requested that Government of India should issue immediate direction to the neighbouring Andhra Pradesh state to stop work on expansion of Pothireddipadu regulator and construction of Rayalaseema Lift Irrigation Scheme. CM further requested that in order to enforce this, the operational control of Srisailam reservoir should be handed over to Telangana immediately.

In a strongly worded letter addressed to Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, Union Minister for Jalshakthi, on Friday, CM KCR detailed each and every aspect pertaining to river waters since the days of united Andhra Pradesh and perennial injustice done to Telangana Area. Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao raised quite a few pertinent issues relating to the fair and equitable share of waters in Krishna and Godavari rivers to Telangana State and requested the union minister, to include them as agenda items of the Meeting of the Apex Council scheduled to be held on 6th October, 2020.

Instances of injustice meted out to Telangana in sharing Krishna water in the erstwhile state of Andhra Pradesh have been detailed one after another. They are: Scrapping of Upper Krishna Project with utilisation of 54.4 TMC, Bhima project with utilisation of 100.7 TMC and Tungabhadra left bank canal with utilisation of 19.2 TMC. “Even, the location of Nagarjunasagar Dam was shifted 19 Kilometres downstream from Yelleshwaram to Nandikonda, to the disadvantage of Telangana in terms of loss of command area. The injustices meted out to Telangana in the combined State were recorded by the Bachawat Award” mentioned KCR.

Referring to the earlier instances where Telangana Government brought to the notice of Government of India on the injustices KCR mentioned that: “A complaint was made to the Ministry of Water Resources on 14th July, 2014 itself, immediately after the formation of the State asking for an equitable allocation of Krishna waters. Subsequently, several reminders have been sent on the subject to the Government of India. A letter me was sent to the Prime Minister on 26th December, 2018 and raised this issue on multiple occasions during our meetings”.

Referring to Pothireddipadu, CM KCR voiced strong objections to the taking up of expansion of Pothireddipadu Head Regulator and the newly proposed Rayalaseema Lift Irrigation Scheme by the Government of Andhra Pradesh. KCR said that the original project itself is completely illegal as it has no water allocation, no approval by any statutory authority, and is meant to send water outside Krishna Basin. The Krishna River is intended to meet the needs of water of the parched areas of Telangana such as Mahbubnagar, Nalgonda, Ranga Reddy and Hyderabad districts, some of which are also suffering from excess fluoride content in drinking water. Quoting the Bachawat Award KCR has emphasized the need to first fulfil the in-basin needs.

Though the Rayalaseema Lift Irrigation Scheme was never sanctioned by any statutory body, Andhra Pradesh has proposed to lift 3 TMC per day from the bottom of Srisailam reservoir and transport it to the Pennar and adjoining basins. Andhra Pradesh has gone ahead with the finalisation of tenders for the work despite strong objections as well as the orders given by KRMB not to proceed with the Project said CM KCR.

If Andhra Pradesh is allowed to go ahead with their nefarious and illegitimate expansion plans of Pothireddipadu now, there will be no water available to meet the requirements of existing projects in Telangana including the drinking water needs of the capital city Hyderabad which is very much within Krishna Basin said CM KCR  and requested the union minister to direct the AP Government to immediately stop these diversions.  

CM KCR highlighted the consistent failures of KRMB as a regulatory body which includes its inaction on Pothireddipadu by remaining as a mute spectator in spite of repeated complaints by his government. KCR said that “we are also shocked by the instructions given by KRMB to stop releases of water from Srisailam Left Bank Power House. Srisailam is a Hydro-Electric project with a provision of 33 TMC for evaporation losses as per the Bachawat Award.  Water is released from the Srisailam reservoir to generate hydro-electric power on the way of its flow to Nagarjunasagar to meet the irrigation requirements of 6 lakh acres of ayacut and drinking water needs of over 1 crore population”.

As per the working arrangements made earlier the responsibility to operate the Nagarjunasagar Project was given to Telangana and Srisailam Project to Andhra Pradesh. It is evident that not only has KRMB failed to play its role as a monitor effectively, but even Andhra Pradesh has taken advantage of this arrangement to illegally draw huge quantities of water from Pothireddipadu complained CM KCR. In the circumstances he requested that the operation and control of Srisailam Project should also be given to Telangana.

            “Since the overall allocation of Krishna waters between Telangana and Andhra Pradesh is still to be made and operational protocol is yet to be formulated by the Tribunal, it would be premature and meaningless to discuss the jurisdiction of the River Management Boards at this stage. In the fitness of things, their jurisdiction and other matters pertaining to their functioning should only be taken up after reference under Section-3 has been made to (Krishna Water Dispute Tribunal) KWDT-II and all matters related to Krishna water allocations and operational protocols are settled” observed CM.

            “The allegations that seven new projects have been taken by Telangana in Godavari basin are a complete farce as all the seven projects were contemplated, designed, and grounded by the government of the combined AP State itself, well before bifurcation took place in 2014. Kantanapalli Project has been renamed as Sammakka Sagar Project after the local tribal deity. The erstwhile Pranahita Chevelle Project was reengineered and redesigned and has been renamed as the Kaleshwaram Project. Sitarama Project is being implemented by merging the erstwhile Rajiv Sagar and Indira Sagar projects. While making these modifications in the projects started in the combined State, it was scrupulously ensured that the water allocation and utilisation was well within the earmarked share of Telangana region as determined by the erstwhile Andhra Pradesh State. Thus, these 7 projects cannot be called as new projects by any stretch of imagination”.

So far as utilization of Godavari waters is concerned, KCR Mentioned that, “In February 2014 the then Chief Minister of combined AP made a detailed statement on the floor of the Legislative Assembly providing project-wise allocations for all the existing/ongoing projects in the state. The projects in Telangana State were allocated 967.94 TMC water and 518.215 TMC was allocated to AP. This was based on an estimation of 1486.155 TMC water availability in Godavari for the combined State.  This allocation works out to be 65.13% of the total water for Telangana, though 80% of river catchment lies in Telangana region of the erstwhile Andhra Pradesh”.

Concluding the letter CM KCR said that Instead of prolonging the dispute between the two newly formed states, the Government of India is requested to make the terms of reference to the present Tribunal for allocation of fair and equitable share of the waters of river Krishna to both States without further loss of time.

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