HYDERABAD: Admitting that the present level of utilisation of minor irrigation sources in Telangana is low, Andhra Pradesh witness and former irrigation engineer M Visweswara Rao has said Mission Kakatiya was conceived to bring back the original level of utilisation of all minor irrigation tanks in the state.
He said this during a cross-examination by Telangana advocates AK Ganguli and Vaidyanathan before the Krishna Water Disputes Tribunal on Tuesday.
When Ganguli asked him if it was correct that the decadal average of utilisation for minor irrigation in Telangana was only around 45 tmcft while there was a notional figure of 89 tmcft indicated in AP’s affidavit, Visweswara Rao replied that the 89 tmcft indicated in the affidavit was the minor irrigation in Telangana out of 811 tmcft for the erstwhile combined state of AP. The actual utilisation was less.
The AP witness further stated that the present utilisation level of minor irrigation in the state of Telangana was low. But Mission Kakatiya was contemplated to bring back the original level of utilisation of all the minor irrigation tanks. Therefore, in future, the state of Telangana would be able to utilise 89.15 tmcft except in some deficit years where the local rainfall was less.
When TS advocate Vaidyanathan asked him about the protocol operations for the Krishna river basin, Rao said that Krishna basin being a single hydrological unit, the operation of all upstream projects would affect the operation of the downstream project.