HYDERABAD: Senior officials of the Telangana Irrigation department have arrived in Delhi to pursue the matter pertaining to Section 3 of the Interstate River Water Disputes Act (IRWDA), 1956. Telangana State had planned to move the Supreme Court over the Krishna water dispute earlier. The State, however, dropped the idea after the Centre’s assurance that a matter would be referred to a tribunal under Section 3 of the IRWDA.
In December last year, Special Chief Secretary (Irrigation) Rajat Kumar also met the Jal Shakti officials in Delhi, who had assured him the matter would be referred to the tribunal within two months. “Two months have passed. However, the Jal Shakti officials are still seeking clarification on the file. Our officials, including Irrigation OSD Sridhar Rao Deshpande, are aggressively pursuing the matter in Delhi,” Kumar told Express.
He said that the TS claims 575 TMCft of water from the Krishna river out of the 811 TMCft that had been allocated to the undivided Andhra Pradesh.
New legislation
Earlier today, Rajat Kumar held discussions over the proposed legislation for the Irrigation department.
“The drafting of the Integrated Irrigation Bill has been completed. We had a debate on the draft bill today. The new legislation, if passed, will integrate the existing 18 Acts on irrigation, right from the 1737 Fasli Act of Nizams,” he said.