BENGALURU: The State government on Monday urged the Centre to direct the National Water Development Agency (NWDA) to allocate rightful share of the state from the transferred water from surplus basin under Inter-Linking of River schemes to meet the needs for drinking and irrigation requirements in the drought-affected areas in Krishna and Cauvery basins.
"The interlinking of rivers has been a well thought-of programme of the Central government to transfer water from surplus river basins to deficit river basins to alleviate water problems being persistently faced by the states in southern parts of the country," Water Resources Minister D K Shivakumar said, while addressing 15th meeting of the special committee for inter-linking of rivers in the national capital on Monday. The minister, however, expressed concerns with regard to Karnataka's share in the transferred water by interlinking of rivers under Peninsular River Development taken up by the Centre.
"In the earlier assessment of surplus water for transfer to the deficit river basin by NWDA, the state was allocated 283tmc, which was revised to 164tmc (2000 report) and subsequently completely abolished the share of Karnataka in the abridge report in 2010. Since 2010, Karnataka government has been persistently urging to restore the state's share in diverted/transferred water from the links under Peninsular River Development (PRD)," the minister stated.
He said the NWDA had also modified the earlier proposal of Mahanandi-Godavari-Krishna-Cauvery-Vaigai-Gundur river link phases. "In the first phase it has formulated the technical feasibility note on Godavari (Akinepally)-Cauvery (grand anicut) link project. To the utter surprise of the state, the NWDA has not considered Karnataka's allocation from this modified link also," he added.
Shivakumar said if the state's interests are not taken care by the NWDA in deciding the shares from the inter-link proposals, the state will be left with no option but to approach the Centre for the constitution of the tribunal to adjudicate the shares of the interested states.