Omit NSLC from gazette notification: Telangana to KRMB
Hyderabad: Telangana has requested Krishna River Management Board (KRMB) to inform Ministry of Jal Shakti (MoJS) to omit project components of Nagarjunasagar Left Canal (NSLC) mentioned in Gazette Notification from Schedule-II till finalisation of Krishna Water Disputes Tribunal-II (KWDT-II) Award. The water utilisation should be restricted up to Kattaleru river as per Joint Project Report, […]
Hyderabad: Telangana has requested Krishna River Management Board (KRMB) to inform Ministry of Jal Shakti (MoJS) to omit project components of Nagarjunasagar Left Canal (NSLC) mentioned in Gazette Notification from Schedule-II till finalisation of Krishna Water Disputes Tribunal-II (KWDT-II) Award.
The water utilisation should be restricted up to Kattaleru river as per Joint Project Report, 1954, and those areas must be irrigated through alternate sources such as Chintalapudi Lift Irrigation Scheme (CLIS).
In a letter to the Board Chairman, Telangana Engineer-in-Chief (General), Command Area Development (CAD), C Muralidhar informed that the NSLC had been modified by then AP governments from time to time, disregarding Lower Krishna Project (Nandikonda Project) Report- 1952 of Hyderabad State and Joint Report of Hyderabad and Andhra States-1954 to the disadvantage of Telangana region.
The above reports of the project proposed extending some of distributaries in tail end reaches of command under Left Canal for conditional inclusion of the areas situated between Hyderabad State boundary and Kattaleru stream in Nandigama taluq of Madras State (later Andhra State).
The area proposed was 1.3 lakh acres. The quantity of water required for this irrigation has to come from the share allotted to Andhra in the waters of the river. An agreement on these aspects and with regard to either sharing the proportionate cost of the project or the payment of the water cess to Hyderabad government for the area irrigated was to be executed. However, no agreement was concluded.
But, unfortunately, after 1956 re-organisation of States, the canal was extended to include 1.3 lakh acres ayacut of Andhra area without any agreement. In addition, from time to time, the then governments of AP have further extended left canal beyond Kattaleru River in utter disregard to the Joint Report of 1954. The area extended further was from 1.3 lakh acres to 3.78 lakh acres.
Unfortunately at the same time, the area in Telangana was reduced from 6.60 lakh acres to 6.02 lakh acres. Further, about 1.0 lakh acres to be brought under lift irrigation from NSLC in Telangana after power houses were constructed were not given effect to.
Protecting 53,000 acres of ayacut under existing small tanks in Telangana through supply of water from NSLC has not been taken up. Moreover, erstwhile AP modified the alignment of NSLC by lowering its sill level at Paleru reservoir, resulting in total loss of 13 ft of head thereby causing considerable reduction in the planned ayacut in Telangana region.
During the agitation for separate Telangana movement in 1969, the then AP government issued a memo to restore the irrigated area under NSLC to Nandikonda Joint Report-1954. The Andhra areas under NSLC should be limited to Kattaleru and restricted to 1.3 lakh acres and the cropping pattern of dry and wet should be the same as adopted in the project estimate of 1956.
It is pertinent to recall that the then Hyderabad government appealed to Khosla Committee in 1952 that the in-basin requirements Krishna River should not be deprived of its due share of waters both irrigation and power and to release unused waters of Krishna for utilization in Madras (i.e, Andhra areas).
It is also important here to mention that after 1956, due to the strong opposition by Karnataka and Maharashtra on diversion of water from Nagarjunasagar and Srisailam projects to outside basin, the consumptive use of Nagarjunasagar was restricted by AP and only 264 TMC was put forth as demands of NSP before the KWDT-I.
Further, the KWDT-I stipulated that priority should be given to basin areas for allocation to future uses. At present, since there was no agreement entered between Hyderabad State and Andhra State (or Madras State) regarding the extension of irrigation facilities in Andhra areas under NSLC, Telangana is pleading before KWDT-II for restricting irrigation for Telangana areas under NSLC as per Joint Report, 1954.
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