‘Cannot settle water disputes through negotiations under ISRWD Act’

Hyderabad: Union Minister of State for Jal Shakti Bishweswar Tudu said the Centre cannot settle water disputes through negotiations when any request under Inter-State River Water Disputes (ISRWD) Act-1956 was received from a State government. The Centre, under the Act, within a period not exceeding one year from the date of receipt of such request, […]

Hyderabad: Union Minister of State for Jal Shakti Bishweswar Tudu said the Centre cannot settle water disputes through negotiations when any request under Inter-State River Water Disputes (ISRWD) Act-1956 was received from a State government.

The Centre, under the Act, within a period not exceeding one year from the date of receipt of such request, will constitute a water disputes tribunal for adjudication of the water dispute, he said.
Tudu was responding to a question in Rajya Sabha raised by Prabhakar Reddy Vemireddy on whether as per the ISRWD Act, the government would take opinion of lower riparian States before giving hydrological clearance to any project and reasons for not taking opinion of lower riparian States of Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Maharashtra besides not sharing Detailed Project Report (DPR).

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Reddy asked whether the government will direct Karnataka to share Upper Bhadra DPR with lower riparian States.

The union Minister said the DPR of Upper Bhadra project was received by the Central Water Commission (CWC) in August 2015 for planned utilization of 29.90 TMC. As per DPR, the project envisages lifting of 17.40 TMC of water in the first stage from Tunga to Bhadra and lifting 29.90 TMC of water in the second stage from Bhadra to tunnel near Ajjampura in Tungabhadra sub-basin of Krishna basin. The project proposes to use water from K-8 (Tungabhadra) sub-basin in Krishna basin, he said.

The project was considered by the Advisory Committee of Department of Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation in its 147th meeting held on December 24, 2020, and as per the minutes of the meeting, the project was as per the Award of Krishna Water Disputes Tribunal (KWDT-I) and Godavari Water Disputes Tribunal (GWDT), Tudu said.

Since the planned utilization of the project was within the allocation of water to Karnataka, consultation with other basin States was not necessary as per the extant guidelines for clearance of projects from inter-State angle, he clarified.

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