Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy made it clear to the officials that Telangana state should get its share of water from river Krishna and Godavari . The Chief Minister ordered the Irrigation authorities to present effective arguments before the Tribunal without causing any loss to the interests of the state.
The Irrigation officials and legal experts have been asked to collect required evidence, records and orders and ready to make arguments on behalf of the state government before the Tribunal.
Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy and irrigation Minister N Uttam Kumar Reddy held a review on irrigation projects with the officials concerned today .
The CM, minister and officials discussed the availability of irrigation water in the state, pending inter-state disputes over Krishna and Godavari waters and the strategies which needs to be adopted by the state government regarding the distribution of water in the meeting.
As per the AP Reorganization Act, Brajesh Kumar Tribunal has been entrusted with the responsibility of water sharing between Telangana and Andhra Pradesh and the project-wise water allocations.
So far, the tribunal has only collected opinions and evidence from the state governments. The officials briefed the CM that the two states will present their arguments before the tribunal soon and then the tribunal will take decision and announce the same.
The officials informed CM Revanth Reddy that the verdicts delivered by the tribunal so far regarding the Krishna basin area and the DPRs related to which projects have already been submitted to the tribunal.
The Chief Minister instructed the officials to keep all the reports given to the Ministry of Jal Shakti ready in a sequential order and to present arguments before the tribunal in a structured manner.
According to international water principles, water allocation should be made in the same proportion depending on the river basin area covered. While 70 percent of the Krishna basin area is located in Telangana and the AP covers only 30 percent . According to the same arguments, the Chief Minister instructed the officials to present arguments so that Telangana gets 70 percent of the water share out of 1005 TMC of available water from river Krishna.
The Chief Minister reminded that since AP was using 80 TMC of Godavari water for Krishna Delta through Polavaram, 45 TMC of water has been allocated to Telangana upstream of Nagarjunasagar in return . The CM instructed the officials to implement the plan and utilize water share through upstream projects.CM Revanth Reddy questioned the consideration of the decisions of KRMB and GRMB since the Brajesh Kumar Tribunal has not yet completed water sharing between two states . The Chief Minister advised the officials to present arguments in the Supreme Court that there should be no interference of Godavari and Krishna boards until the distribution of water shares by the Tribunal is completed.
It is learnt that AP is transferring more water than its quota from Krishna waters through various projects. Officials explained to the CM that this can be stopped with the telemetry system which scientifically measures the flow of water. Officials explained to the CM that the two states should pay Rs. 12 crores ( each Rs 6 crore) to spend on the installment of telemetry equipment. The CM suggested that the officials to pay entire amount in advance, if necessary, and implement the telemetry system. Later, the AP will reimburse the amount .
