HYDERABAD: Union Minister of State for Jal Shakti, Bishweswar Tudu, on Thursday evaded a direct reply to a question of TRS MP Gaddam Ranjith Reddy in Lok Sabha on allocating Krishna river water to Andhra Pradesh and Telangana at 50:50 ratio, till the Tribunal delivered its verdict. The Minister, however, said that there was no formal request from AP and TS to constituting a Tribunal on sharing of Godavari waters.
Ranjith Reddy asked the reasons why the Ministry has not distributed waters between Andhra Pradesh and Telangana as per the Inter-State River Water Disputes Act, 1956. He also wanted to know if the Ministry has made any recommendation to this effect to Brijesh Kumar Tribunal and whether the Central government proposed to allot water at 50:50 ratio till the tribunal finalises water distribution between Telangana and Andhra Pradesh.
No formal request for Tribunal, says Union Min
In reply, Bishweswar Tudu said: “At the second meeting of the Apex Council constituted under APRA 2014, held on October 6, 2020 under the chairmanship of Minister of Jal Shakti, both the States (Andhra Pradesh and Telangana) agreed to the setting up of a Godavari Tribunal for adjudicating on the sharing of the waters of Godavari between AP and Telangana. However, as is legally required, no formal request from either the Government of Telangana or the Government of AP has been received for constituting a Tribunal in this matter”.
“As per the decision in the meeting held in June 2015 in the then Ministry of Water Resources with Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, it was mutually agreed for sharing of Krishna river waters between Andhra Pradesh and Telangana for the water year 2015-16. The arrangement agreed upon was that out of 811 tmcft allocated by Krishna Water Disputes Tribunal to erstwhile undivided State of Andhra Pradesh, 512.04 tmcft and 298.96 tmcft would be the share of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana respectively.
Year-wise share
Later on, year-wise sharing of waters agreed by both States as per decisions in various Krishna River Management Board (KRMB) meetings is as follows: In 2016-17, AP got 512.04 tmcft and Telangana got 298.96 tmcft and in 2017-18, AP got 66 per cent share and Telangana got 34 per cent share in Krishna waters, the Union Minister said.