HYDERABAD: The key issue of conducting a joint survey on the impact of the backwaters from the Polavaram Project didn’t come up for discussion during the joint meeting of irrigation officials from Telangana and Andhra Pradesh conducted by the Polavaram Project Authority (PPA) on Wednesday.
The Central Water Commission (CWC)-mandated meeting was originally scheduled on April 10, but was postponed to Wednesday. While AP officials sought more time for the discussion, their Telangana counterparts protested against the inordinate delay. Subsequently, AP officials agreed to provide the data on Polavaram by April 14.With this, Telangana officials demanded that the joint meeting be conducted on April 15 and the joint survey on the backwaters of Polavaram should be completed before the onset of monsoon.
AP stalling execution of PRLIS, claims Telangana
The arguments on the Palamuru-Rangareddy Lift Irrigation Scheme (PRLIS) resumed at the Krishna Water Disputes Tribunal (KWDT) on Wednesday. Senior advocate of Telangana, CS Vaidyanathan, started the arguments and brought to the notice of the Tribunal that Andhra Pradesh had approached every forum and tried to stall the execution of PRLIS. AP’s senior counsel, Jayadeep Guptha, said the existing project-wise allocation by KWDT-1 should be made as project-wise specific allocation by this Tribunal.
However, Telangana’s counsel countered this by stating that erstwhile AP has reallocated 811 tmcft as per its will which is not acceptable to Telangana. When AP’s counsel stated that project-wise allocations are already existing as per KWDT-1 Award, Telangana’s counsel brought to the notice of the Tribunal about the Supreme Court’s verdict in the Almatti Case in 2000. Arguments will resume on Thursday.