Redistribution of Telangana and Andhra waters in Krishna Water Tribunal
KWDT-2 headed by Justice Brajesh Kumar said the preliminary inquiry will be conducted in accordance with the terms of the latest reference issued on the basis of the Central Inter-State River Water Disputes (ISRWS) Act, 1956, which will also cover this issue. This will have importance in water transfer and project-wise allocation between the two states.
State Irrigation Minister N. Uttam Kumar Reddy, in a statement on Friday, said this is a major victory for Telangana, which has been arguing for redistribution of Krishna river waters between Telangana and Andhra states in the wake of bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh. 2014.
After the formation of Telangana in 2014, the then Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) government led by K Chandrasekhar Rao signed an agreement with Andhra Pradesh. According to this agreement, of the 811 TMC Krishna water awarded to the erstwhile state of AP by the Bachhawat Tribunal in 2013, only 512 TMC should be allocated to Andhra Pradesh and 299 TMC to Telangana.
He said this is not correct as 68.5 per cent of the Krishna basin catchment area is in Telangana and accordingly 555 TMC should be given to Telangana as its share.
He accused KCR of undermining the state’s interests by agreeing to only 299 TMCs and failing to protect Telangana’s fair water rights on Krishna river waters.
without any approval
There are many projects in the Krishna basin which do not have Krishna Tribunal water allocation such as Palamuru – Rangareddy LIS, Kalvakurthy LIS, Nettampadu, Bhima LIS. The KCR government should have submitted DPR for these projects and taken approval from the Central Jal Corporation and Krishna River Management Board (KRMB). He said that by failing to do this, the previous government had completely endangered the lives of the people of Palamuru, Nalgonda and Rangareddy districts.
Kishan Reddy said that the terms of reference given earlier by the Bachawat Tribunal for fair distribution of Krishna waters did not do proper justice to Telangana. He said the existing project-wise allocation should not be touched, as this would limit the amount of new water to be distributed to Telangana.
on water allocation
In October 2023, the Central Government gave new terms of reference to KWDT-2 under Section 3 of the Inter-State River Water Disputes Settlement Act, 1956. Accordingly, the tribunal will look into the allocation of Krishna water to the proposed projects under construction in both the states of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh.
The tribunal was asked to look into the reallocation and redistribution of Krishna waters between Telangana and Andhra Pradesh from their combined share of 811 TMC allocated to the United States. The minister said that these additional provisions have paved the way for fair distribution of fair share of Krishna river water to Telangana.
He said that although the Andhra government approached the Supreme Court challenging the validity of the additional terms of reference issued by the Centre, the Supreme Court did not grant any interim relief to Andhra Pradesh in this regard.
Welcoming the interim orders issued by KWDT-2, senior BRS leader and former Telangana Water and Drainage Minister Tanniru Harish Rao praised the previous KCR government’s struggle in tribunals and the Supreme Court to get its due share of Krishna waters for Telangana. praised.
This result is a testament to the sustained struggle and strategic planning done during the KCR regime to correct the injustice done by the Congress party. He said that in the past, during the Congress government at the Centre, Telangana had to face serious challenges in the matter of sharing of water in the Krishna river.
