Telangana seeks justice from KRMB

Hyderabad: Telangana has requested Krishna River Management Board (KRMB) to look into the dire needs of in-basin areas of the State and take the initiative to undo the injustice meted out to the areas in the basin. In a letter to the Board Chairman, Telangana Irrigation and Command Area Development (CAD) Engineer-in-Chief (General), Ch Muralidhar, […]

Hyderabad: Telangana has requested Krishna River Management Board (KRMB) to look into the dire needs of in-basin areas of the State and take the initiative to undo the injustice meted out to the areas in the basin.

In a letter to the Board Chairman, Telangana Irrigation and Command Area Development (CAD) Engineer-in-Chief (General), Ch Muralidhar, requested the board to take steps to remove the component number 1.15 from schedule one and two of the Gazette Notification issued in July 2021.

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He said in schedule one and two of the notification, the Kalwakurthy Lift Irrigation Scheme was shown as two components – Kalwakurthy Lift Irrigation Scheme: pump house and appurtenant works and additional 15 TMC: pump house and appurtenant works.

In fact, Kalwakurthy Lift Irrigation Scheme was not enhanced to utilise additional 15 TMC from the original scope of the project but was earmarked by the Telangana government commensurate with the ayacut envisaged by the State government in erstwhile Andhra Pradesh. The same fact was already clarified to KRMB several times, he pointed out.

Hence, the component 1.15 may be deleted from schedule one and two. The Kalwakurthy Lift Irrigation Scheme was taken up by erstwhile AP to irrigate 2.5 lakh acres in Mahabubnagar district by lifting 25 TMC from Srisailam reservoir through G.0. 535 dated December 23,1997.

Later, the ayacut was increased to 3.65 lakh acres through various GOs and memos. However, water utilisation commensurate to the ayacut was not increased, he said.

Hence, the Telangana government, as part of reengineering, enhanced the water requirement from 25 TMC to 40 TMC in proportion to the ayacut and is seeking allocation out of 75 per cent dependable flows before Krishna Water Dispute Tribunal (KWDT-II).

Hence the Telangana government through G.0. 141 dated September 28, 2015 gave approval enhancing the allocation of water from 25 TMC to 40 TMC seeking allocation for the same out of 75 per cent dependable flows before KWDT-I.

Further, it is to inform that while submitting DPR before KWDT-II in 2006, the erstwhile AP has furnished that the water drawl level for Kalwakurthy Lift Irrigation Scheme should be at +800.525 feet at the Srisailam reservoir, Muralidhar said.

At the same time, erstwhile AP submitted the drawl levels of the surplus based projects – Handri-Neeva Sujala Sravanthi (HNSS), Galeru-Nagari Sujala Sravanti (GNSS), Veligonda and Telugu Ganga Project (TGP) from Srisailam reservoir with water levels at or near FRL (i.e +885 ft).

It clearly shows that the in basin surplus water-based project Kalwakurthy Lift Irrigation Scheme was to draw water from +800.525 ft while outside basin surplus-based projects were proposed to draw water from FRL or near FRL Ievel in the Srisaillam reservoir.

Stating that this fact was already placed before the KRMB, he said erstwhile AP did not plead for any allocation of Krishna water to these schemes out of dependable waters under Section 89 proceedings before KWDT-II while Telangana has pleaded for dependable water for its Kalwakurthy Lift Irrigation Scheme.

The KWDT-I has stipulated that while allocating water for future uses, in-basin uses should be given preference.

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