KRMB, GRMB officials visit NSP, Peddavaggu

Hyderabad: Senior officials from Krishna River Management Board (KRMB) and Godavari River Management Board (GRMB) visited the Nagarjuna Sagar Project (NSP) in Nalgonda district and Peddvaggu in Khammam district on Wednesday. The visit by the Board officials is being seen as a prelude to the Centre’s move to take over the irrigation projects on both […]

Hyderabad: Senior officials from Krishna River Management Board (KRMB) and Godavari River Management Board (GRMB) visited the Nagarjuna Sagar Project (NSP) in Nalgonda district and Peddvaggu in Khammam district on Wednesday.

The visit by the Board officials is being seen as a prelude to the Centre’s move to take over the irrigation projects on both the river basins in Telangana from October 14. The Centre issued a gazette notification to this effect in July 2021. As many as 107 projects on Krishna and Godavari basins would come under the control of the Centre. The two teams, however, declined to comment on the purpose of their visit when the media sought their response.

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KRMB members Shiva Rajan, Prasad and Thrinadh visited the NSP right and left canals, hydel power generation plant, crest gates and their operating system. They also inquired with the engineers of the NSP about the technical details of the projects.

A senior official from the Irrigation department said the KRMB members also asked about the exact ayacut under the NSP before visiting tail pond. The KRMB members will be visiting Puttamgandi reservoir and Paleru. “Following instructions to be available at the NSP site in view of the visit of KRMB officials, we came to the site and briefed them,” an official said. Officials and staff posted at the project sites will adhere to instructions received from the Engineer-in-Chief from the head office in Hyderabad.

Another official said they have not received any communication from the department about the Centre taking over projects from October 14.
Meanwhile, a separate team of GRMB visited an inter-State project – Peddavagu in Khammam district and collected details.

Decks cleared for Centre to refer Telangana plaint to KWDT-II

The Supreme Court on Wednesday disposed of the application filed by Telangana requesting withdrawal of its writ petition on a complaint limiting the scope between the States of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh to the existing Krishna Water Disputes Tribunal-II (KWDT-II), Irrigation department officials said.

With this, the decks have been cleared for the Central government to refer Section-3 complaint to the tribunal as per the decision taken in the second Apex Council meeting. Incidentally, last year on this day, the second Apex Council meeting was held in which the Central government had assured Telangana State that the complaint would be referred to the tribunal under Section 3 subject to withdrawal of this case from Supreme Court. The Centre will now have to issue fresh terms of reference.

According to officials, a complaint was lodged by Telangana government under Section-3 of Inter-State River Water Disputes (ISRWD) Act-1956 requesting to refer the same to a new tribunal or to the existing KWDT-II.

Since the complaint, which encompasses issues relating to all Krishna basin States, had not been referred within the time-frame prescribed under provisions of ISRWD Act, Telangana filed a writ petition in the Supreme Court requesting direction to the Central government to refer the same to appropriate tribunal.

Subsequently, during pendency of petition, the Centre filed an affidavit in December 2015 stating that the KWDT-II would be the competent authority to determine the share of successor States of erstwhile Andhra Pradesh without disturbing allocations made to other States under Section-89 of AP Reorganization Act- 2014.

From 2018, letters were addressed to the Central government requesting to refer the complaint of Telangana to KWDT-II, limiting the issues raised in the complaint between Telangana and Andhra Pradesh.

During the second meeting of Apex Council on October 6, 2020, the issue of reference of the complaint under Section-3 to tribunal, was again raised by Telangana.

The Union Minister concluded that “for considering the request of Telangana for a tribunal under Section-3 of ISRVWD Act-1956, Telangana has to withdraw its case filed before the Supreme Court on the subject. After receiving such assurance, the Ministry of Jal Shakti will seek legal opinion on whether a new tribunal has to be appointed or new terms of reference can be issued to KWDT-II to hear the matter.”

Telangana has agreed to withdraw the case in the Supreme Court. Consequently, based on Union Minister’s assurance, Telangana has filed an application before the Supreme Court withdrawing the writ petition.

Telangana requested the Centre to take steps for referring its complaint limiting the scope between Telangana and Andhra Pradesh to existing KWDT-lI to avoid duplication of inquiry and multiplicity of proceedings.

Meanwhile, four crest gates of NSP were lifted on Wednesday to release water downstream. The water level in NSP was 589.7 feet against its Full Reservoir Level of 590 feet. The current water storage in the project was 311.2 TMCs against its gross storage capacity of 311.4 tmcs. The inflows into the project were continuing at 72,155 cusecs and total outflow was 79,072 cusecs.

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