Andhra Pradesh to complain to river board
Uma Maheswara Rao said that AP needs to protect its interests at any cost and there cannot be any compromise on this.
Hyderabad: The AP government plans to once again lodge a complaint against the TS government, accusing it of unilaterally entering into pacts with Maharashtra to utilise more waters without informing it.
“We are not against their projects, but the TS government should follow due procedure in taking up projects like Kaleswaram and Tammidihatti which involve huge utilisation of Godavari waters. We, being the lower riparian state, will have to suffer on account of this,” AP irrigation minister D. Uma Maheswara Rao told DC on Wednesday.
He said that AP needs to protect its interests at any cost and there cannot be any compromise on this. According to a senior engineering official, TS cannot go ahead either with construction of new projects or enter into pacts with other states, keeping AP in the dark.
“After all, Godavari is a common river for Maharashtra, TS, AP, Chhattisgarh and Odisha. For any agreement, there has to be consensus among all these states,” Ch. Ramakrishna, chief engineer, Inter-State Water Disputes Department of AP, said.
For the record, AP had earlier lodged a complaint with the Godavari River Management Board. “Any new project shall be placed before the GRMB and only with consent from other state (in this case AP), it should proceed further. As far as our knowledge goes, TS has not provided us with any details like water utilisation, designs, flood management etc. Hence, it is a clear violation,” said a senior official. TS irrigation Engineer-in-Chief C. Muralidhar said, “We are aware of the procedures and will follow them scrupulously. AP need not worry.”