KCR urges Jal Shakti Min to defer gazette notification

CM meets Shekhawat in New Delhi, says as October is an agriculture season, the river Boards can’t take control of projects at the time

Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao (File photo | EPS)

HYDERABAD:  Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao on Monday called on Jal Shakti Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat in Delhi and reportedly asked him to defer the implementation of the Ministry’s gazette notification. The Ministry had decided to bring irrigation projects in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana under the jurisdiction of river management boards from October 14.

However, the Chief Minister reportedly informed the Jal Shakti Minister that October was an agriculture season and the Boards could not take control over the projects at the peak time. Besides, Rao wanted the Minister to take up one common project under the control of any water management board and manage it on a trial basis, and take control of other projects later.

Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao meets Minister of Jal Shakti Gajendra Singh Shekhawat in New Delhi on Monday

The CM also wanted the Union Minister to constitute a new Tribunal for sharing of Krishna river waters afresh between AP and Telangana. Rao said the State government had filed a petition in the Supreme Court to withdraw its case filed under Section 3 of the Inter-State River Water Disputes Act.

Rao further wanted Shekhawat to give clearances for Godavari projects. He said that the Jal Shakti Ministry’s gazette notification mentioned that 11 projects on Godavari were unapproved. But, Rao said that only four projects required clearances and the remaining five did not need any approvals. The CM wanted Shekhawat to approve DPRs of six projects. Rao handed over a letter to the Minister. 

PLEA FOR TRIBUNAL OVER SHARING KRISHNA WATERS
K Chandrasekhar Rao wanted the Union Minister to constitute a new Tribunal for sharing of Krishna river waters afresh between AP and Telangana and to give clearances for projects on the Godavari river

Contents of the letter

• We are taking up - Sitarama (70 tmcft), Devadula LIS (60 tmcft), Chinna Kaleshwaram LIS (4.5 tmcft), Ramappa-Pakhala link (3 tmcft), Modikunta Vgu (2.14 tmcft) and Chowtupally Hanumantha Reddy LIS (0.8 tmcft). All these projects are taken up by Telangana out of water allocations already approved by Central Water Commission, the detailed project reports (DPRs) of these projects may be expeditiously approved
• The additional one tmcft per day of Kaleshwaram project is not an additional project or new project. It has been taken up with State government funds to utilise the 240 tmcft allocation made to Kaleshwaram by CWC. It does not require any approval of the Central government 
• Kandakurthy LIS is a minor scheme serving an ayacut of 3,300 acres and does not require any appraisal
• The Ramappa-Pakhal link and the Tupakulagudem barrage which are part of the Devadula project do not require any new approval
• The Gudem LIS is a part of the approved Kaddam project, constituted to serve the tail end areas and does not need any approval
• Kanthanapally, which is non-existent, may also be dropped from the list of unapproved projects