Leaders fault verdict on Krishna Water distribution

According to former irrigation ministers Mandava Venkateswara Rao and Tummala Nageswara Rao (both TDP), most of the ongoing irrigation projects in the State will be adversely affected by the award. With no surplus waters flowing in, both the Telangana and the residuary State will be locked in problems relating to sharing of river waters after the bifurcation.

Apart from differences among them, the two States will have to jointly fight with Karnataka as the upper riparian State will be utilising more water and will have greater capacity to store water in their reservoirs.

According to the experts, Rayalaseema and even Delta regions will suffer. The farmers will suffer as they will not get water during June-July period when the agricultural operations will begin.

There could be a delay of about two months before the agriculture season will commence in the State. This will leave them prone to natural calamities like heavy rains and cyclones.

The CPI state secretary K Narayana said the State had suffered as the government did not show the kind of seriousness it required.

Alleging that there is no governance in the State for long, Narayana demanded that the government convene an all party meeting to discuss as to what can be done now to save the interests of the state.

BJP state president G Kishan Reddy also demanded an all party meeting. He said the tribunal verdict will turn many districts into desert.

He said the Chief Minister should immediately lead a delegation of all party leaders to New Delhi and see that the damage was minimised.

TDP leaders D Narendra and P Keshav said that the first mistake the State committed was during the Congress regime when the then Chief Minister YS Rajasekhara Reddy told the tribunal that Andhra Pradesh will not stake claim over the surplus waters. Another mistake was that they have been putting up weak arguments before the Tribunal. While Karnataka retained the same team of legal experts, who had argued its case before the earlier tribunal headed by Bachawat while our government has been changing the advocates.

Terming the Brijesh Kumar Tribunal verdict on Krishna Water utilisation as a sad day for irrigation sector in the State, YSR Congress leader MV Mysoora Reddy demanded that the State government move Supreme Court and get a stay, failing which, the State will become a desert as many of the projects planned on surplus waters would have to be shelved. The CPI (ML) New Democracy felt that the decision of the Tribunal may have its repercussions on the Telangana issue.

JP pointed out that the award has made matters worse for Andhra Pradesh. Andhra Pradesh had benefited immensely from the 1976 Bachawat Tribunal award which upheld the right of Andhra Pradesh, the lowest riparian State, to all the surplus waters in the Krishna.