HYDERABAD: In a major setback for the state government, the Centre has made it very clear that fresh appraisal of detailed project report (DPR) of Palamuru-Rangareddy Lift Irrigation Scheme (PRLIS) cannot be carried out until the existing Krishna Water Disputes Tribunal (KWDT) gives its final verdict on sharing of Krishna river waters between sibling states of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana.
The Central Water Commission (CWC) stated that the PRLIS involved utilisation of Krishna river waters and a gazette notification was issued in October, 2023 by the Union government, giving fresh terms of reference (ToR) to the existing Brijesh Kumar Tribunal.
“The matter is now sub-judice and currently appraisal of Palamuru Rangareddy LIS cannot be carried out till the final award/notification of the Tribunal,” the CWC said in reply to a RTI query raised by RTI activist Inaganti Ravi Kumar.
Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy on January 4, 2024 wrote a letter to the Union government on PRLIS. The Jala Shakti Ministry treating the letter as “VIP reference letter”, made it clear that the appraisal of PRLIS cannot be carried out till the final award of the Tribunal. The same was shared with Ravi Kumar.
The DPR of PRLIS was submitted to the CWC for techno-economic appraisal of CWC on September 13, 2022. The CWC replied to Ravi Kumar’s question, on conferring national project status on PRLIS, that the process of inclusion of a project as a national project was mentioned in the “Guidelines for Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchayeee Yojana-Accelerated Irrigation Benefit Programme (PMKSY-AIBP) and National Project” of February, 2022.
The RTI reply also recalled the fresh ToR given to Brijesh Kumar Tribunal, which includes: “The tribunal shall distribute/allocate the Krishna river waters between the States of Telangana and the present State of Andhra Pradesh from undivided share of erstwhile State of Andhra Pradesh and the total undivided share of the erstwhile State of Andhra Pradesh that may be considered for the purpose of this distribution/allocation is as below:
1) 811 tmcft of overall allocation (en bloc) made by the Krishna Water Disputes Tribunal-1 to the erstwhile state of AP and any additional allocation over and above it made by the said Tribunal to the erstwhile AP.
2) share of water allocated to the erstwhile AP by the Godavari Water Disputes Tribunal, which is made available by transfer of water from Godavari to Krishna through Polavaram project and any further transfer from Godavari to Krishna from Polavaram project, if proposed”.
Mentioning the fresh ToR, the CWC replied to Ravi Kumar: “Therefore, in view of above the matter is now sub-judice and currently the appraisal of Palamuru-Rangareddy LIS cannot be carried out till the final award/notification of the said Tribunal”.
However, Ravi Kumar opined that the final award/judgment of the Tribunal may come only after five years and the DPR of the PRLIS cannot be appraised till next five years and without DRP, the state government cannot go ahead of the project.
The PRLIS is proposed to irrigate 12 lakh acres in the erstwhile Mahabubnagar, Rangareddy and Nalgonda districts and also to provide drinking waters to several villages.