Telangana seeks alternate date for KRMB, GRMB meet
State govt urged the Boards to give an alternate date for the meeting so that Telangana officials can participate and present their views
Hyderabad: Telangana on Sunday reiterated its inability to participate in the Krishna River Management Board (KRMB) and Godavari River Management Board (GRMB) meetings scheduled for Monday on account of prior commitments to various legal and court issues.
The State government urged the Boards to give an alternate date for the meeting so that Telangana officials can participate and present their views. In a related development, the KRMB urged National Green Tribunal (NGT) to give three weeks adjournment for submission of report after inspecting the Rayalaseema Lift Irrigation Scheme (RLIS) in Andhra Pradesh.
In separate letters addressed to the Chairpersons of KRMB and GRMB, the Special Chief Secretary for Irrigation, Dr Rajat Kumar, said the Telangana government had already expressed its inability to attend the meeting on August 9 because of its prior commitments. He also requested that in addition to administrative matters mentioned in the agenda circulated by the board, issues relating to Krishna water utilisation may also be included in the agenda for the next meeting.
Meanwhile, the KRMB Member Secretary D M Raipure, in a letter to Ramesh Kumar, CGSC Chennai, requested three weeks adjournment for submitting a report on RLIS.
According to Raipure, a request was made to Ministry of Jal Shakti (MoJS) for nomination of an officer of the rank of Chief Engineer/Director from Central Water Commission (CWC) to visit the RLIS site.
Subsequently, P Devender Rao, Director, Krishna and Godavari Basin Organisation (KGBO), CWC, Hyderabad, was nominated and a team was constituted with officers from KRMB and CWC.
The NGT delivered an order on July 23, 2021, directing KRMB “to submit as to whether there is any violation of undertakings given by the parties and the directions given by the Ministry in this regard. The Tribunal also directed the Board to incorporate such findings in their reply, and gave it the liberty to conduct inspection on its own. It also sought details of what was actually taking place at the site and also whether this was required for preparing a Detailed Project Report (DPR) for the project.
Accordingly, a team comprising officers of KRMB and CWC was to visit the project site on August 5. However, the AP government filed a memo before the NGT on August 3 objecting to the inclusion of Devender Rao since he belongs to Telangana.
The NGT which heard the matter on August 5, observed: “However, when some apprehension has been raised, it is always better that persons from both the States are avoided as justice must not only be done, but must appear to be done as well.”
In view of the directions of NGT, an officer was required to replace Devender Rao. Towards this purpose, the KRMB approached MoJS two days ago requesting for nomination of a suitable officer of the level of CE/Director who was well conversant with preparing DPR/investigations of the project and design of water resources projects in place of Devender Rao.
Soon after the receipt of nomination from the Ministry, a team will be formed and a visit will be undertaken to the RLIS project site and a report will be submitted, Raipure said.
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