Andhra Pradesh today accused Telangana of constructing two irrigation projects on Krishna river illegally and contended these will will "adverse" impact on its existing projects, a charge denied by the latter as "baseless".
Andhra Pradesh made the allegations at the first Apex Council meeting held here under the chairmanship of Union Water Resources Minister Uma Bharti and attended by Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu and his Telangana counterpart K Chandrasekhar Rao.
During the meeting, Andhra Pradesh stated that two "new" projects of Telangana, Palamuru Rangareddy and Dindi Irrigation Schemes, are being constructed on the river in "violation" of Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act, 2014 and demanded the Council to put those on hold until it receives sanctions.
According to the Act, the two cannot take up new project without the approval of the Council.
Telangana though maintained that the "on-going" projects were taken up by erstwhile Andhra Pradesh government, which had sanctioned them based on the liberty given by Krishna Water Disputes Tribunal (KWDT)-I and hence, did not violate the law.
Meanwhile, the Council decided to form a joint committee to assess availability of water in Krishna basin to help Krishna Water Disputes Tribunal to decide quantum of river water to be shared by the two states.
The committee will comprise officials from Centre and both the state governments.
Noting the meeting is taking place in the wake of disputes between Odisha and Chhattisagarh over sharing Mahanadi river water and Cauvery water by Karnataka and Tamil Nadu, Bharti also pitched for formulating a national policy in consultation with states to deal with water crisis.
"During the meeting, Andhra Pradesh raised objections over the projects saying these were taken up violating the AP Reorganisation Act and sans sanctions from the Council.
"It also claimed that the project will have adverse impacts on water availability of existing projects of Andhra Pradesh (irrigating 45.72 lakh acres) with assured allocations," a source said.
Andhra Pradesh observed that Telangana has already accomplished its utilisation to the extent of 295.86 TMC as against 299 TMC of its Krishna river water share, to claim there is "no further quantum of water is available in Krishna basin" for Telangana to take up "additional projects"
In its part, Telangana stated the two projects were taken up erstwhile undivided Andhra Pradesh government, based on the "liberty" given by KWDT-I.
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"It stated that the erstwhile Andhra Pradesh government Palamuru Rangareddy had received administrative approval for detailed survey and preparation of detailed project report on August 8, 2013.
"Similarly, the administrative approval was given for preparation of detailed project report for Dindi irrigation project on July, 2007. So, these are not 'new' projects it claimed," the source said.
A senior Union Water Resources Ministry official though said that the role of the Council, which met following a Supreme Court order dated July 20 this year, was limited to dispute redressal which could be done only based on right data to help the tribunal arrive at appropriate decision and hence, the committee is being set up.
Speaking to media persons after the meeting, Bharti claimed the two states discussed the issue "amicably" and added the joint committee will be formed comprising engineers from both the states and also the Water Resources Ministry.
"They will assess availability of water basin and that report will be sent to the tribunal which will decide quantum of water to be shared," she said.
The Minister, however, did not specify when the report will be sent to the tribunal.
Among other, she added the telemetry system will be installed at locations as agreed by the two states to monitor river inflow and outflow, so that there is no dispute on the data.
Referring to disputes between states on sharing inter-state river waters, Bharti advocated formation of a national water policy in agreement with states.
"Some MPs have even suggested including water in concurrent list. We need to figure out ways for sharing river water," she added.
Meanwhile, a source said that a meeting will be held in Maharashtra's Pune next month to discuss water crisis in states and ways out at the Union Ministry-level.
According to the Krishna tribunal order, the truncated Andhra Pradesh and Telangana account for 512.06 TMC and 298.96 TMC of the river water out of the total 811 TMC entitled by undivided Andhra Pradesh respectively.
