KCR seeks new tribunal for Krishna water row

Hyderabad: Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao on Mon-day requested the Centre to refer the Krishna water-sharing dispute to a Tribunal for adjudication under Section 3 of the Inter State River Water Disputes Act, 1956 (ISWR), instead of extending the term of the Brijesh Kumar Tribunal for the purpose. Rao met Union Highways and Water Resources Minister Nitin Gadkari in New Delhi.

In a letter submitted to Gadkari, the CM said, “We have made a representation to the Centre in this regard on July 14, 2014. However, instead of referring the matter under Section 3 of ISWR Act, the Centre extended the term of the Brijesh Kumar Tribunal and referred the matter under Section 89 of the AP Reorganisation Act, 2014.”

The CM added, “The provisions under Section 89 are limited in scope and will not be able to do justice to the rightful claims of Telangana. It is, therefore, necessary that the matter is referred to the Tribunal under the ISWR Act.”

The CM urged the Union Minister to refer the issue to the Krishna Water Dispute Tribunal instead of the Brijesh Kumar Tribunal for ensuring justice to the people of Telangana.

Telangana, which was carved out of Andhra Pradesh on June 2, 2014 has sought to be considered as an entity separate from the parent state in distribution of Krishna water among the stakeholder states. It seeks fresh determination of its share in the Krishna water.

The Brijesh Kumar Tribunal had earlier determined the Krishna water share among Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Maharashtra. After bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh, the share of Telangana was determined from Undivided AP share while the TS government has been demanding reallocation of water among four states by treating Telangana as a separate state.

Mr Rao brought to the notice of Gadkari that Sitarama project being constructed on Godavari was not a new project and said that they had only redesigned the old project and sought approvals from the Central Water Commission. Rao also sought faster approvals and Rs 11,000 crore for laying the 6-lane Regional Ring Road in Hyderabad abetting ORR.

Mr Rao thanked Gadkari for according approval to upgrade the 154-km Sangareddy-Narsapur-Toopran-Gajwel-Jagadevpur-Bhongir-Choutuppal highway and 180-km Choutuppal-Yacharam-Shadnagar-Chevella-Shankarpalli-Kandhi highway as national highways.

The CM informed that about 2,000 km of roads in Telangana were handed over to NHAI to develop as four-lane roads, of which 1,000-km development had been completed and the rest were in tender-stage. He also sought Rs 3,000 crore for maintenance of the 3,600-km national highways being maintained by the state power works department.