Verdict spells doom for Seemandhra

Anantapur: Brijesh Kumar Tribunal verdict, on utilisation of surplus waters from Krishna basin, would have adverse impact on existing and ongoing irrigation projects of Rayalaseema region.

The tribunal had reportedly not considered pleas by the state government and many projects would have no proper allocation, except 4 tmc ft of water to RDS.

Three decades old Penna Ahobilum Balancing Reservoir (PABR), in Anantapur district, was also not considered as state government sought allocation of 10 tmc ft of water from surplus water of Tungabhadra Reservoir, an inter-state project, located in Bellary district of Karnataka.

Additional allocation of 10 tmc ft water could only mitigate the drinking water needs of Anantapur district, which was severely drought-hit.

Tungabhadra water is the only source to overcome the drinking water crisis through pipeline projects.

Recent completion of Srirami Reddy PABR drinking water project has been designed to serve Tungabhadra water, to southern talukas, including industrial area in Hindupur, located on Karnataka border.

People are purchasing a pot of water at Rs 6 in Hindupur municipality. The state government had issued GO of allocating 10 tmc ft from the available surplus sources, but the tribunal had not considered the plea to allocate surplus water from Tungabhadra reservoir.

Telugu Desam politburo member, Kaluva Sreenivasulu told this reporter that Brijesh Kumar Tribunal had not considered parallel canal from Tungabhadra reservoir in the wake of silt.

Referring to permitting upper Tunga and Upper Bhadra projects, including Amati project, the former Anantapur MP lamented that Krishna delta, mainly Rayalaseema region, would feed into server water crisis.

He had scathing attack on the state government for failure to impress the tribunal over long pending problems.

With the tribunal verdict to be effective till 2050, the existing and ongoing projects would have no assured surplus water allocation after Karnataka and Maharashtra benefit in the sharing.

Communist Party of India (CPI) district secretary K. Jagadish observed the tribunal verdict would further hit the drought hit areas in Rayalaseema region.

As the state division process was being speeded up, the little change allocation of surplus waters further leads to consecutive famine for Anantapur, which receives second lowest rainfall in the country.

The revenue minister, N. Raghuveera Reddy, had recently meet the Karnataka Chief Minister, Siddaramaiah and other officials, who sought cooperation for a flood canal from Tungabhadra reservoir towards Anantapur to make use of allocated water.

The verdict impact on the ongoing projects like Handri-Neeva, Galeru Nagari and other projects depend on Krishna River waters.

The state government had recently completed Asia’s biggest lift irrigation project with nine lifts to pump back water from Krishna river in Kurnool district.

The HNSN project is designed to irrigate 3.80 lakh acres and also to meet drinking water needs in Rayalaseema region.

One of the important irrigation and APNGO’s association president, Ashok Babu, found the verdict was injustice to the state.