“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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