Telangana CM to ask Centre to wait till final allocation, says no board control yet
Hyderabad: Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao has reportedly decided to write again to the Central government, seeking restrictions on the Krishna River Management Board from taking control of all irrigation projects in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh.
Sources in the irrigation department on Sunday indicated that Mr Rao is going to write to Union water resources minister, Uma Bharathi with a copy to Prime Minister Narendra Modi in a day or two in this regard.
As per the AP Reorganisation Act, KRMB should take control of all structures and projects on the Krishna river including staff and officials for better administration of water distribution among the two states.
However when a draft notification was prepared by KRMB last year, Mr Rao had opposed it stating there is no use of bringing everything under the control of the board when final allocation of waters to various projects has so far not been finalised.
But the AP government had supported the proposed notification by the Centre to bring all under control of KRMB as per the Act. The irrigation department sources said that based on fresh orders from the Union water resources ministry, the board had sent a draft notification to the Centre, TS and AP governments.
The Telangana government was of the view that there is no use in bringing everything under the control of KRMB when water allocations to respective states have not been finalised.
“So far, the Central government has not notified the final order of the Brijesh Kumar Tribunal on the allocation of the Krishna river waters among all riparian states following a stay order from Supreme Court. Also, there is no clarity on the jurisdiction of KRMB constituted under AP Reorganisation Act and it is pending before the same Tribunal for the last two years,” a senior official of the irrigation department told DC.
The Centre has only tentatively made water sharing arrangements for Telangana and Andhra Pradesh till finalisation of the disputes. The official asked how the Centre can notify the KRMB control against this backdrop.
Sources said that the Chief Minister will now again write to the Centre seeking a stay on the proposed notification till finalisation of the disputes before the Supreme Court and the Krishna Tribunal.
Harish: T-TD leaders will get brickbats
Irrigation minister T. Harish Rao has stron-gly criticised the statements made by the leaders of Telagana Telugu Desam claiming that the Telangana need to take permission from AP for all the new projects taken up in the state.
Terming their arguments ridiculous, Mr Rao said on Sunday that Telangana TD leaders seems to have concentrated on the support they get from AP people and AP TD leaders but not bothered about the support from the Telangana people.
“They got claps from AP people for their anti-Telangana speeches; but they seem to have forgotten that they will receive brickbats from the Telangana people. It is a shameful act on their part for talking against their own Telangana state and its interests,” he said. He said there is no need to seek permission from AP for the projects as it is the right of Telangana to build projects that benefit the state.
