No new Krishna Tribunal, Centre informs Supreme Court

New Delhi: In a sudden volte face, the Centre on Tuesday informed the Supreme Court that there was no proposal to appoint a fresh tribunal to address the issue of Telangana questioning the apportionment of water by the Krishna Water Disputes Tribunal-2.

In an affidavit filed before a Bench of Justices Dipak Misra and Prafulla C. Pant, the Centre, through additional solicitor general Tushar Mehta, said the matter had already been referred to the Krishna tribunal to resolve the dispute between AP and Telangana without disturbing the project wise allocation of water to the other states of Maharashtra and Karnataka.

It said that the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act itself stipulated that the Krishna Tribunal-2 would be the competent authority to determine the share of AP and Telangana and that there should not be any disturbance in the allocations made to Karnataka and Maharashtra, and there was no need for a fresh tribunal to resolve disputes between AP and Telangana.

The Bench was hearing petitions challenging the Krishna Water Disputes Tribunal-2 award on allocation of water among Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Karnataka and Maharashtra.