More Hurdles In Telangana - AP Krishna Dispute

The Brijesh Kumar Krishna Tribunal today passed a verdict on the sharing of the Krishna river waters, stating that from now on it would consider the dispute between Telangana and Andhra Pradesh separately without involving Maharashtra and Karnataka.

This verdict comes after MH and Karnataka voted out of the dispute; and is a blow to Telangana as the Tribunal will re-allocate waters only between Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, whereas the other two states can allocate waters without considering the needs of TS and AP.

Back in 2014, soon after bifurcation, the Telangana government had approached the Centre and asked it to re-allocate waters as per section 89 of the AP Reorganization Act, 2013. The Centre, however, rejected the plea as the issue did not come under its ambit. This forced the State government to approach the Supreme Court.

As per the petition filed by the TRS-led government in the SC, the Telangana region has not received its due share of the river waters for nearly 60 years, leaving the region largely barren and parched. In the petition, the State also alleged that the united AP governments had deliberately ignored the region.

Telangana questioned the reason behind Andhra receiving 512 tmc of water and an additional 150 tmc despite having a small catchment area of 22% of the Krishna basin, and Telangana receiving only 299 tmc despite sharing majority (68%) of the Krishna basin.

Telangana also had accused Andhra of using 350 tmc of water from the basin in places waters from other rivers could be used, depriving Telangana of its share.

The SC then asked the Tribunal to sort out the issue between the four states. But the MH and Karnataka governments expressed wish to stay out of the disputes between the two Telugu States, after which the Tribunal had given its verdict.

The Telangana government has expressed concerns over this stating that the exclusion of the two riparian states of MH and KT would complicate water re-allocation manifold instead of solving it.

In order to sort this, the KCR-led government will send a high-level delegation led by members of the High Court jury and ministers of the government's irrigation department on October 19.