Hyderabad: With the Brijesh Kumar Tribunal (Krishna River Water Disputes Tribunal-II) accepting the Telangana Government’s plea to take up the issue of project-wise allocations of water, the government intensified efforts to submit adequate evidence of excess utilisation of river Krishna water by the neighbouring Andhra Pradesh government against the interests of the Telangana and violation of the AP Reorgnization act 20214.

State Irrigation Minister N Uttam Kumar Reddy, who was in New Delhi supervising Telangana’s arguments before the Tribunal, said that the government welcomed the Tribunal decision to study the project-wise water allocations.

As per the provisions of Section 89 of the AP Reorganisation Act 2014, KWDT-II was to make project-wise specific allocations if they were not made by a Tribunal set up as per the Interstate River Water Disputes (SRWD) Act, 1956.

Telangana knocked on the Supreme Court doors asking for the setting of up a new Tribunal which eventually paved the way for the Central government to issue new terms of reference (TOR) to KWDT-II (Brijesh Kumar Tribunal) in October 2023.” Under the new TOR, “project-wise” means existing, on-going and contemplated projects of both the states. With Telangana having more projects on the river, the state should see a larger share of the river’s water.

On Thursday, after hearing the two sides, the KWDT-II issued its orders that it was inclined to hear the matter again in February under the provisions of the new TOR.

The Minister alleged that the then Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao had entered into an agreement with AP and agreed for 299 tmc ft of water for Telangana and 512 tmc ft for AP out of the 811 tmc ft of Krishna waters awarded by Bachawat Tribunal (KWDT-I) to the then combined AP state. “This was a wrong decision by KCR because 68.5 per cent of the catchment area of Krishna Basin lies within Telangana and, accordingly, Telangana should get 555 tmc ft (68.5 per cent of 811 tmc ft) as its due share. By agreeing to 299 tmc ft only, KCR sabotaged Telangana’s interests and failed to protect the legitimate water rights of Telangana,” Uttam Kumar Reddy said.

“There are many projects in Krishna Basin that do not have water allotment by the Krishna Tribunal such as Palamuru Rangareddy, Kalwakurthy, Nettempadu and Bheema lift irrigation schemes (LIS). KCR should have submitted the DPRs of these projects and should have secured approval from the Central Water Commission and Krishna River Management Board. By failing to do so, he put the lives of the people of Palamuru, Nalgonda and Ranga Reddy districts in complete jeopardy,” Uttam Kumar Reddy said.