Hyderabad: Andhra Pradesh was diverting 333 tmc ft of water from the Krishna river to areas that fall outside of the river basin region, and this was severely affecting water supply in Telangana, and agriculture in the state, the Krishna Water Disputes Tribunal-II (KWDT-II) was informed by Telangana on Wednesday.
The KWDT-II began its three-day final arguments in Delhi on the allocation of Krishna water between Telangana and Andhra Pradesh with senior counsel C.S. Vaidyanathan making the state’s case on day one.
Telangana says that since of the river’s basin falls in its jurisdiction, the state should get a larger share of the water based on the existing principles and practices. At present, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana share the previously allocated 811 tmc ft of water to unified Andhra Pradesh in the 66:34 ratio that works out to 512 tmc ft for AP and 299 tmc ft for Telangana.
If the state’s arguments succeed, then it stands to gain in terms of its share, along with its claims of allocations based on projects in the state.
The state argued on Wednesday that additional water resources available for outside basin areas of Andhra Pradesh such as Polavaram using 80 tmc ft, Pattiseema LIS using about 100 tmc ft and Chintalapudi LIS using 27 tmc ft should be compensated for Telangana and in lieu of these, additional allocations should be made for Telangana from the Krishna.
The tribunal was also told that the plight of Telangana farmers is such that because of excess drawals by AP, they have been left to the vagaries of the monsoon even as the assured mainstream Krishna water is being diverted by Andhra Pradesh to outside the basin areas.
The hearings will continue on Thursday.
