The Telangana Government has decided to make a strong pitch for equal (50:50) share in the Krishna water at the Krishna River Management Board (KRMB) meeting slated for Wednesday with the 2023-24 water year commencing in about three weeks – from June 1.
It is the major contention the State is planning to raise at the River Board meeting as the latter has been sharing water in the 34:66 ratio between Andhra Pradesh and Telangana since formation of Telangana after the bifurcation of AP or since 2014-15 without the consent of the newly formed State.
“We had agreed for that ratio only for the first year and it was clearly mentioned in the minutes of the meeting that it would be in force for just one year and would be reviewed next year. It’s only an ad hoc arrangement being followed on year-to-year basis but the River Board has been issuing orders as if it’s the agreed upon share on permanent basis”, a senior official of the Irrigation Department said.
However, the River Board has been continuing the same share without the consent of one of the Member States – Telangana. “We agreed for that share for 2014-15 as several ongoing projects in the Basin were pending completion. Telangana Government had completed the pending projects within two years and the requirement of water has gone up considerably to meet the intended needs”, the official said.
Telangana has been demanding sharing of water in the 50:50 ratio for the last two years highlighting the fact that it is fighting for a share of 575 tmc ft out of 811 tmc ft allocation to combined AP made by KWDT-I before the ongoing hearing before the KWDT-II (Brijesh Kumar Tribunal). The State has been seeking higher share on the grounds that KWDT-I Award had specified that any allocation of water in future has to give priority to in-basin needs, rather than needs outside the basin.
“The entire drawal of about 150 tmc ft being made from Srisailam reservoir through Pothireddypadu Head Regulator system and two other systems at Malyala and Muchhumarri every year is being taken outside the basin without any allocation and at the cost of in-basin project needs in Telangana”, the official noted. Diversion of only 34 tmc ft is allowed as per agreements in vogue and it includes 15 tmc ft meant for drinking water supply to Chennai.
The official explained that needs of Telangana increased with the completion of Kalwakurthy, Bhima, Nettempadu and Koelsagar lifts and it would go up further with partial commissioning of Palamuru-Rangareddy and Udayasamudram projects soon.
