HYDERABAD: Former Central Water Commission (CWC) chairman, Ghanshyam Jha who is a witness for Telangana clarified the concept of the Krishna river basin while deposing before the Brijesh Kumar Tribunal on Tuesday. The cross-examination by AP advocate R Venkataramani, to record the statement of the Telangana witness, continued for the second day on Tuesday before the Tribunal.
While the AP advocate asked the former CWC chairman whether it was correct that the Krishna Delta System (KDS) with the utilisation of 181.20TMC (which include 4 tmc of evaporation losses at Prakasam barrage) was permitted by the Krishna Water Disputes Tribunal-1 (KWDT-1) and was in operation since 1855, Jha replied yes.
When asked is it correct that the KC canal, with the utilisation of 39.90TMC, was permitted by the KWDT-1 and is in operation since 1866?, the TS witness replied that the project started with 10 tmc irrigating about 35,000 hectares only.
However, to another question, he said: “In fact, eight TMC allocated to SRBC was a project diverting water outside the basin. 11 TMC of return flow is also allotted to this project and as a result, the return flow happening within the basin is again diverted outside the basin. So not only surplus water but the valid inside return flow is sent outside”.
The AP advocate recalled the KWDT-1 report which stated “the delta area though technically outside the basin is heavily dependent on the Krishna waters for its irrigation needs. On a consideration of all relevant materials, we do not propose to impose any specific restriction on AP regarding diversion of water outside the basin for the purpose of Irrigation”.
The AP advocate then, questioned: “the conclusions drawn by KWDT-1 are valid and will continue to remain valid. What have you to say?”. Jha replied: “the deltaic part of the river starts wherein distributors rather than tributary, takes off from the river system. Only the channel consisting Krishna water after distributory phase can be considered as a delta.
So the area is very small in comparison to the area projected and stated to be belonging to Krishna delta. As such a view is to be taken regarding the actual area of the delta. But, because of the complexities, artificial structures were removed from the basin due to the fact that the area used to be limitless. As such the dependence of outside people on the resources of the basin has to be objectively defined”.