HYDERABAD: The state Irrigation officials requested the Krishna River Management Board (KRMB) not to make any appraisal of the pre-feasibility report (PFR) of Polavaram-Banakacherla Link Project (PBLP), proposed by the Andhra Pradesh government.
Telangana Irrigation Engineer-in-Chief (General) Mohd Amjad Hussain, in a letter to the KRMB, said on Monday that in view of the unresolved and substantive objections of the Polavaram Project Authority (PPA), Godavari River Management Board (GRMB) and Expert Appraisal Committee (EAC), the lack of statutory clearances and the ongoing violations of binding legal provisions and tribunal awards, it is requested to restrain Andhra Pradesh from taking up any further action, including awarding tenders. He also requested the KRMB to not make any appraisal of the PFR of PBLP.
He mentioned that Telangana already furnished its objections to the PBLP proposed by Andhra Pradesh and requested the Union government and various authorities to stop further processing of the project reports and restrain Andhra Pradesh from going ahead. However, Andhra Pradesh is proceeding with the PBLP and recently called for tenders for preparation of detailed project reports and obtaining clearances from the Central Water Commission.
The ENC mentioned in the letter that the Krishna river basin is a deficit basin and the main reason for it becoming a deficit is large scale outside basin (Penna and other basins) diversion of the Krishna water by Andhra Pradesh. Further, KWDT-I held that for any future projects i.e, projects taken up after September, 1960, in basin projects should be given priority in water allocation. But, the PBLP has been proposed to divert Godavari water across the Krishna basin to Penna basin and other basins disregarding inside basin areas of Telangana which are craving for water to meet drinking, irrigation and industrial needs.
The KWDT-I Award stipulated that in the event of the augmentation of the waters of the river Krishna by the diversion of the waters of Godavari river, no state shall be debarred from claiming before any authority or tribunal that it is entitled to a greater share in the waters of the river Krishna on account of such augmentation.
Before the existing KWDT-II, Andhra Pradesh has been claiming for 45 tmcft of water out of the 80 tmcft of water diverted from Polavaram project as per the GWDT award, to divert outside basin from Banakacherla regulators and Telangana is contending these false claims of Andhra Pradesh. The matter is sub judice before the existing KWDT-II and Telangana submitted that the Polavaram diversions were necessitated to meet the deficits inside the Krishna basin.
Further, it is learnt that Karnataka communicated to the Centre that it wants 64.75 tmcft of water (or more) to utilise as a share of water from Krishna river in lieu of diversion of water through PBLP, as per the GWDT Award, which will be detrimental to the interests of Telangana in the Krishna basin, the ENC said in the letter.
