Telangana seeks 50:50 sharing of Krishna River waters

Hyderabad: The Telangana government on Tuesday urged the union Ministry of Jal Shakti to convene a meeting of all stakeholders to take a decision on sharing of Krishna River waters based on the legitimate requirement of the State before the onset of monsoon. The decisions will be subject to pending settlement of the issue of fair and equitable sharing of Krishna River waters by the Krishna Water Disputes Tribunal (KWDT).

Special Chief Secretary for Irrigation Rajat Kumar shot two missives to the Secretary for union Ministry of Jal Shakti seeking the Central government’s urgent intervention on both the issues. Telangana also requested the Centre to stop Andhra Pradesh from proceeding with unauthorised schemes to draw more water through Polavaram Irrigation Project (PIP).

In the first letter on sharing of water sharing, Rajat Kumar pointed out that the issue of fair allocation of Krishna River waters to Telangana State was the very basis of the Statehood movement. Since 2015-16, Krishna water allocations were being made on a 66:34 ratio between Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. Even in 2021-22, Telangana agreed to continue with the arrangement subject to the condition that Andhra Pradesh will not divert more than 34 TMC from the Srisailam reservoir. KRMB, however, allowed AP to draw water far in excess of their legitimate claim of 34 TMC, he pointed out.

Telangana had raised the issue at the 16th meeting of KRMB in May this year and demanded that water distribution should be in the ratio of 50:50 for the current water year, considering the 105 TMC requirement for three operational projects — Srisailam Left Bank Canal (SLBC), Kalwakurthy LIS and Nettempadu LIS serving an ayacut of about 10-12 lakh acres within Krishna basin. But the KRMB issued ex-party notice to continue the water-sharing arrangement in the ratio of 66:34 for the water year 2022-23, Rajat Kumar contended.

“This action on the part of KRMB is not legally valid as the Board is empowered to take decisions only through negotiations and mutual agreement vide clause 84(3)(iii) of the Reorganization Act 2014. In the present instance, Telangana has not given its consent to this allocation,” he pointed out, seeking immediate convening of the meeting to address the issue.

He also urged the Central government to resolve long-pending demands including utilisation of 45 TMC of Krishna water by Telangana’s unserved areas in basin areas, in lieu of diversion of Godavari water from Polavaram, as per the August 4, 1978 agreement of GWDT (Godavari Water Disputes Tribunal) award, from the date of clearance of Polavaram project by CWC (Central Water Commission).

The official said only 20 per cent of drawals made for drinking water supply shall be accounted as consumptive use, apart from allowing Telangana to carry over the unutilised share of water to the next water year to meet exigencies.

The Special Chief Secretary also expressed concern over the expansion of two canals of PIP to discharge 496 cumecs each (i.e. 3 TMC per day), beyond the approved 230/347 cumecs (left/right main canals respectively) (i.e. 1.7 TMC per day). He urged the Centre to ensure that the capacity and drawals from these canals are limited to designed discharges and approved drawals, failing which it would be detrimental to the interests of all upper riparian States including Telangana.

Citing numerous schemes constructed and being operated under the Polavaram project to derive early benefits, he wanted the Centre to subsume them after the Polavaram project is operationalised. Several other schemes are being directly or indirectly linked to the Polavaram project to draw excess water. The Central government was asked to restrict the demand/utilisation of AP to 493.50 TMC of assured water and the schemes having the potential to utilise more than 493.50 TMC may immediately be stopped.

Further, the Central government was requested to intervene and direct AP to stop proceeding ahead with unauthorised schemes. It was pointed out that the role of the Jal Shakti Ministry in ensuring compliance was of particular importance as Polavaram Project has been declared a national project and as such, any unauthorised drawals/constructions will also reflect on the role of the Central government.