HYDERABAD: Telangana witness Ghanshyam Jha denied the claim by Andhra Pradesh’s senior advocate R Venkataramani stating that Telangana has been diverting huge quantities of Godavari waters to the Krishna basin. During the cross-examination before the Brijesh Kumar Tribunal on the third day on Thursday, the AP advocate said, “Telangana is diverting 214.145 tmcft from Godavari to Krishna basin.”
In reply, Jha said that most of the projects for utilising the Godavari waters were planned by the erstwhile AP government but they were not executed except SRSP stage-1. All the other projects are incomplete.
“(Even in) SRSP stage-I , (the water was diverted) only once in 2016-17 in the (span of) last 20 years. The diversion in Krishna basin was to the extent of 7.4 tmcft as against the planned use of 18.4 tmfct. The total planned utilisation as per Telangana is 98.3 tmcft against the reported 214.14 tmcft. In fact, it is pertinent to add here that some of the lifeline projects like SLBC with 150 tmcft of water and NSLC with lift irrigation for one lakh acre were not undertaken and completed,” Jha said.