Telangana Assembly passes resolution to not hand over projects to KRMB until State’s conditions fulfilled

Telangana Assembly passed a unanimous resolution resolving that common projects would not be handed over to Krishna River Management Board unless the conditions put forth by the State government were fulfilled

Hyderabad: Telangana State Legislative Assembly on Monday passed a resolution informing the union Government of its resolve not to handover the control of common projects to Krishna river Management Board (KRMB) unless its conditions were fulfilled. The conditions include finalisation of water sharing taking into consideration on the basis of catchment area, drought prone area, population and cultivable area in the riparian States. The other conditionalities include keeping the minimum draw down level (MDDL) of Srisailam at 830 ft, limiting the outside basin diversions from Srisailam to 34 tmc, steps for stalling unauthorised construction of projects and expansions diverting krishna water beyond the Krishna basin.

The House witnessed an intense discussion on the issue with the Irrigation minister N. Uttam Kumar Reddy making a powerpoint presentation on the issue. The minister led the treasury benches in the trenchant attack on the former ruling party accusing it of turning a negligent eye on the over use and diversion of Krishna water by Andhra Pradesh. The main opposition party, the BRS fielded former Irrigation minister and Siddipet legislator T Harish Rao in putting the government in a spot over its negligence in agreeing to hand over the projects to KRMB. It was literally a war of words with both the sides refusing to concede any advantage to the other.

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The five-hour-long debate saw several ministers including Deputy Chief Minister Bhatti Vikramarka, Sridhar Babu and Komatireddy Venkat Reddy springing to their feet to counter the onslaught of Harish Rao, who laid out threadbare the efforts of the earlier BRS government to safeguard the interests of Telangana. Harish Rao maintained that the Government moving such a resolution itself was a victory for the BRS arguing that it was only after his party took up the issue and planned a public meeting on the issue in Nalgonda that the Government was forced to change its stand on the issue.

Earlier the Chair had turned down the BRS plea for allowing it to make a presentation leading to vociferous protests. Harish Rao reminded the treasury benches that the ruling party leaders had challenged for a detailed discussion in the House, but now the BRS was not being allowed to speak. When Uttam Kumar Reddy, during his presentation claimed that during the BRS rule, the diversion of Krishna water by Andhra Pradesh increased while the inflows dwindled. The Minister also claimed that the former government had agreed for a proposal to hand over 15 components of Srisailam and Nagarjunasagar projects, eliciting loud protests from BRS members.

Uttam Kumar Reddy argued that the BRS government had skipped attending an Apex Committee meeting when Andhra Pradesh government was contemplating the Rayalaseema Lift Irrigation project. He charged that the “inefficient and incompetent” government had agreed for a share of 512 tmc for AP and 299 tmc for Telangana. However, Harish Rao was quick to intervene and point out that it was only for one year that Telangana had agreed for such a share.

Countering the government argument, Harish Rao pointed out that Telangana had stiffly opposed in the KRMB meetings even while issue was subjudice. the second untruth by government that Telangana had not challenged the central notification. The government could elicit this from IAS officer Rahul Bojja’s letter. The former government had also written 27 letters disagreeing on the water share proposal. He pointed out that the AP government had issued an order on May 5, 2020, but the BRS Government had written to the Centre opposing such proposal on January 29, 2020 itself. If this was so, the Government is telling an absolute lie on the issue.