Telangana draws attention of KWDT-II to A.P.’s Krishna water diversion to non-basin areas in deficit years too

Telangana has brought to the notice of the Krishna Water Disputes Tribunal-II that Andhra Pradesh has been diverting over 40 tmc ft of water from Srisailam to the outside basin areas through Telugu Ganga without any allocation by any water disputes tribunal even during the acute deficit years in the Krishna Basin.

On the second day of this round of arguments by Telangana in the Section 3 of Inter-State River Water Disputes Act reference made by the Centre to the Tribunal for fresh apportionment of Krishna water between Telangana and A.P. out of the allocation for combined A.P., senior counsel arguing for Telangana explained before the Tribunal headed by Justice Brijesh Kumar in New Delhi on Friday (August 29) that A.P. was also misleading the Tribunal in the matter of projects mentioned in Schedule-XI of the July 2022 notification of the Ministry of Jal Shakti.

The senior counsel submitted to the Tribunal that the erstwhile A.P. was given liberty only to use the remaining water without any allocation neither by KWDT-I nor by KWDT-II. He stated that A.P. had proposed an ayacut of 16.3 lakh acres under surplus water based projects and further expanding their scope by providing additional ayacut of 26.3 lakh acres, without allocation by a Tribunal.

By virtue of the outside basin diversion by A.P., the return flows were also being denied in the in-basin areas of Telangana, the counsel for Telangana said and pleaded before the Tribunal that no apportionment of water be considered for the outside basin projects and sought imposition of specific restrictions on various water drawal systems such as Pothireddypadu, Muchumarri, Malyala (HNSS) and Veligonda outlets based on Srisailam reservoir water by empowering the regulatory authority.

Further, the Telangana counsel sought interim directions from the Tribunal to the Krishna River Management Board to ensure that diversions did not take place in violation of the Award provisions. He also sought allocation of savings of 16 tmc ft evaporation losses at Srisailam and Pulichintala reservoirs to Rajolibanda Diversion Scheme (RDS) and also allocation of 45 tmc ft water to Telangana in lieu of Godavari water diversion to Krishna Delta from Polavaram.

The counsel for Telangana further brought to the notice of KWDT-II that upper riparian States Karnataka and Maharashtra were also agitating for a greater share in Krishna waters on account of augmentation of Godavari waters to Krishna river as the shortages in the Krishna Basin were created by over-appropriation for use in the outside basin areas by A.P.

He drew the attention of the Tribunal to the inter-State agreement of 1978 wherein it was provided to share 80 tmc ft water in the upstream of Nagarjunasagar — 45 tmc ft to erstwhile A.P. (now Telangana) and 35 tmc ft to Karnataka and Maharashtra together and that entire in-basin requirements are only in Telangana. The Tribunal posted the next hearing in the matter to September 23 to 25.