All projects it claims are new are in fact projects taken up in the undivided State and were subsequently redesigned and renamed
Hyderabad: Andhra Pradesh has been crying foul about seven ‘new’ projects being taken up by the Telangana State government on River Godavari including the prestigious Kaleshwaram Lift Irrigation Scheme, earlier known as Pranahitha Chevella project in the undivided State. The fact that the acknowledgment by the Union Ministry of Water Resources that KLIS is not a new project seems to have fallen on deaf ears.
That aside, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister YS Jaganmohan Reddy himself was a willing participant in the inaugural function of the project on June 21, 2019, along with then Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and the host Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao exposes the blatant attempts by AP to show the Telangana State government in poor light. The Chief Ministers of the two States even held detailed discussions, on the initiative of Chandrashekhar Rao, on the interlinking of Krishna and Godavari rivers that would benefit both the States and prevent precious surplus water from flowing into the sea.
All the projects that AP claims are new are in fact projects taken up in the undivided State that were subsequently redesigned and given new names based on popular local sentiments.
AP Special Chief Secretary, Water Resources department Adityanath Das in a letter to Godarvari River Management Board (GRMB) on May 5, 2020 alleged that Telangana was building several irrigation projects in violation of the provisions of the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act.
He said the total water available to both States from Godavari River was 1,430 tmc, including 776 tmc for AP and 650 tmc for Telangana State. “However, Telangana has been executing seven new projects, including Kaleshwaram Lift Irrigation Scheme (KLIS), with utilisation of 450 tmc feet without furnishing the detailed project reports to GRMB and approval of apex council. What is more, Telangana has enhanced the utilisation of waters under Kaleshwaram from 225 tmc to 450 tmc, which will affect the Andhra projects like Polavaram in the downstream,” he said.
Sridhar Rao Deshpande, OSD (Irrigation) in the Telangana Chief Minister’s Office, dismissed the AP allegations as farce. “In fact, all the seven projects were contemplated, designed, and grounded by the erstwhile AP State itself, well before bifurcation took place in 2014” he told Telangana Today. Administrative and technical sanctions, water allocations, finalisation of contracts and land acquisitions were all taken up in the erstwhile combined State, and an expenditure of Rs 15,000 to Rs 20,000 crores was incurred on these seven projects even before Telangana State was formed.
Godavari Lift Irrigation Scheme (GLIS) scheme was given administrative sanction in 2001 and by 2014 an expenditure of Rs 7,292 crore had already been incurred on this project. The Kanthanapally Project, which was originally a part of the GLIS scheme, was shifted about 20 km upstream to Tupakula Gudem village, to avoid submergence of 11,408 acres of tribal lands in 17 villages. To honour the tribal people it was renamed as Sammakka Sagar Project after the local tribal deity. “These are not new projects as AP is calling them but were projects that were renamed and redesigned based on the needs of the new State,” Deshpande said.
Similarly the erstwhile Pranahita Chevella Project was reengineered to avoid submergence of lands in Maharashtra, to create adequate reservoir capacity as per Central Water Commission’s advice, and make it suitable for the requirements of the Telangana State. Keeping in view the local sentiments and traditions, the project was renamed as the Kaleshwaram Project. Even the Ministry of Water Resources has accepted that Kaleshwaram project is not a new project.
The Sitarama Project is being implemented by merging the erstwhile Rajiv Sagar and Indira Sagar projects sanctioned in 2005. Due to the bifurcation of the State the head works of Indira Sagar came under the submergence of Polavaram Project, and much of the proposed ayacut went to Andhra Pradesh due to transfer of seven mandals as per the amendments made to the Reorganisation Act by the Government of India. Hydrological clearance for the redesigned Sitarama Project has also been duly obtained by Telangana State. 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. Deshpande argued that these 7 projects cannot be called as new projects by AP.
The multi Stage KLIS was inaugurated on June 21, 2019 by the Chief Minister in the presence of his counterparts from Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh, and the Governor of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. At that time nearly 95 percent of work on lifting 3 tmc per day was already completed. “It now appears that Andhra Pradesh is objecting about the Kaleshwaram Project with the sole purpose of diverting attention from their own unauthorised and illegal activities at Pothireddypadu Regulator and Rayalaseema Lift Irrigation Scheme,” Deshpande observed.
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 and 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 per cent of the total water for Telangana, though 80 per cent of river catchment lies in Telangana region of the erstwhile Andhra Pradesh.
The erstwhile State of AP was awarded all remaining waters entering into the borders of the erstwhile State. As per 53 years of Central Water Commission (CWC) gauge records at the last gauging station on Godavari River at least 3,000 tmc of water flows into the Bay of Bengal after the utilisation of both the States of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh. The erstwhile State of Andhra Pradesh itself had allocated 65.1 per cent of the Godavari waters to Telangana region. The 3,000 tmc of water flowing into the sea annually can also be used on a pro-rata basis.
Based on the total water requirement for irrigation, industry and drinking water, Telangana will use 1,950 tmc water per year against the present allocation of 967.15 tmc. This additional water will be required for meeting the water requirements of the State capital which is growing due to the expansion of IT and Pharma industries and the growth of its urban agglomerations.
TS Irrigation Principal Secretary added that when N Kiran Kumar Reddy was the Chief Minister of erstwhile AP, he announced that the allocation to TS in Godavari was 967.14 tmc. “The seventh clause of the Bachawat Tribunal permitted taking of Godavari water allocated to a particular State to anywhere within the State. We are using our quota of water as per our requirements,” Rajat Kumar told Telangana Today.
On the objections of the AP that though the Kaleshwaram Lift Irrigation Scheme was sanctioned to lift 225 tmcft and TS was diverting 450 tmc now, Rajat Kumar explained that the Nizam Sagar and SRSP which got a combined allocation of 243 tmc, never got more than 50 or 60 tmc in their history, due to the projects constructed by the upper riparian States. Rajat Kumar said that when AP was diverting Godavari waters to Krishna basin through Pattiseema lift, Telangana should get 45 tmc water above Nagarjuna Sagar Project in Krishna River.
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