Hyderabad: The Telangana state government on Monday strongly told the Godavari River Management Board (GRMB) that there was no necessity for the board’s sub-committee to discuss the jurisdiction of any project on the river other than the Peddavagu project which serves both TS and AP.
It would not be prudent for the GRMB Secretariat to move the TS government on this issue time and again, it said.
The government told the board that all the other projects and components on the Godavari mentioned in Schedule-2 of the Centre’s gazette notification exclusively serve Telangana and must be removed from the list.
The government said that the visit of GRMB officials to project sites and the preparation of handing-over notes must be done only with prior approval of the board or the sub-committee.
The state government made its arguments at the GRMB sub-committee meeting with officials of the two Telugu states. The meeting was called to discuss the taking over of projects on the Godavari, following the Centre's gazette notification issued in July last year.
The TS government refuted the demand of its Andhra Pradesh counterpart on taking over jurisdiction of Telangana projects in the Godavari basin, especially those that facilitate conveying waters to unserved areas of the Krishna basin,
Telangana was diverting water from the dependable share entitled to it, and it was within the ambit of the Godavari Waters Disputes Tribunal (GWDT) Award. It does not attract provisions of the Krishna Water Disputes Tribunal (KWDT) Award “by any stretch of imagination.” It called the demand of the AP government “irrelevant and uncalled for.”
The TS government said that the Krishna River Management Board had been involving members of the sub-committee in site visits as well preparation of handing over notes. GRMB cannot take a contrary stand in this aspect, the TS argued.
Even with respect to the Peddavagu project, after consensus to hand over the first phase, the sub-committee had held detailed discussions and finalised the handing over notes. Similar such practice needs to be followed.
