HYDERABAD: The Telangana government's witness, Ghanshyam Jha, countered Andhra Pradesh advocate R Venkataramani before the Brijesh Kumar Tribunal saying that the Pattiseema project is not a temporary one.
He asserted that it is a permanent project, from which the Andhra Pradesh government has been drawing 100 tmcft of water every year. The cross-examination of the Telangana witness by the Andhra Pradesh advocate, which entered its third day on Friday, was mainly on the aspects related to the contents of the affidavit on the Godavari river diversions from the Polavaram project and the Pattiseema Lift Irrigation Scheme (LIS).
To prove that the Pattiseema LIS is temporary, Venkataramani asked Jha if he had studied the documents related to the project. The Telangana witness countered him by quoting Lok Sabha Question 545 in 2015, wherein Pattiseema was mentioned as not a part of Polavaram and that the actual drawals being made by AP through it were more than 100 tmcft per annum.
He also expressed apprehension that as a huge investment was made in this project, it would not be discontinued. But when Venkataramani mentioned the GO 1 of Andhra Pradesh on Pattiseema, Brijesh Kumar, the tribunal chairman, intervened and said clarity was missing in the letter and GO. However, Andhra Pradesh went on to raise questions on the project by drawing Jha's attention to several questions placed earlier to the State’s witnesses.
"Our witness (Jha) was firm. He said the facts clearly reveal that AP has made huge investments and drew more than 100 tmcft, which establishes his apprehension that this project will continue. He also asserted that a project cannot be taken up without approvals just because Polavaram is delayed," sources in the Water Resources Department said. V Ravinder Rao, senior advocate; and Nikhil Swami, advocate on record; attended the hearing from TS. The tribunal listed the matter from April 28-30.