Irrigation minister T Harish Rao lodged a complaint with Union water resources minister Uma Bharti against the ‘unilateral’ decisions of the Krishna River Management Board (KRMB) and wanted the latter not to bring irrigation projects under KRMB’s jurisdiction.
Harish Rao along with TRS MPs called on Uma Bharti in New Delhi on Monday. He told her that the KRMB was acting against the interests of Telangana state and favouring Andhra Pradesh.
Harish Rao said the KRMB recently circulated a draft notification for bringing all the irrigation projects on Krishna river under KRMB’s purview. The minister Rao wanted the Central government not to notify the KRMB’s draft notification, as it would be detrimental to the interests of Telangana state. Harish Rao said cases were pending before Brijesh Kumar Tribunal and Supreme Court on sharing of Krishna waters.
“The KRMB could not decide water sharing and it could only monitor the release of waters. The projects should not be brought under KRMB, till the cases are finalised and the actual share of TS in Krishna river is fixed,” Harish Rao said.
KRMB in its meeting held in Hyderabad on June 27 circulated the draft notification to bring the projects under its jurisdiction.
“Without project-wise allocations as suggested by the AP Reorganisation Act, KRMB’s control over irrigation projects will damage the interests of TS,” Harish Rao explained to Uma Bharti.
Following this, Uma Bharti has decided to convene a meeting with her secretary Amarjit Sigh on Tuesday. She wanted TS chief secretary Rajiv Sharma to meet CWC officials.
Harish Rao also called on Union cabinet secretary Srivastav on the issue. Speaking to reporters later, Harish Rao said Uma Bharti has assured him that justice would be done to all the states.
‘Allocate 90 TMC more Krishna water to TS’
Harish Rao submitted a memorandum to Uma Bharti with a request to allocate 45 tmc water to Telangana from Krishna in addition to the 299 tmc assured water. The AP government constructed Pattiseema to divert 80 tmc water from Godavari to Krishna river. “As per the final award of KWDT-1, Telangana and other upper riparian states are entitled to get share in the waters of river Krishna on account of such augmentation,” Harish Rao said in the letter and requested Uma Bharti that the KRMB allocated additional 45 tmc in Krishna river to Telangana from 2016-17. As Pattiseema is not part of Polavaram project, TS also wanted another 45 tmc additional water because of diversion of Godavari waters from Polavaram, he said.
Source: The New Indian Express