Karnataka constructing road-cum-barrage sans permission
Supreme Court of India
Hyderabad: The Telangana state government has lodged formal complaints with the Centre against Karnataka for constructing a road-cum-barrage at Girijapur, Raichur district, in violation of the agreement on inter-state disputes and without obtaining clearances. The TS government wants the construction halted.
Irrigation principal secretary Dr S.K. Joshi filed separate complaints with the commissioner, Union ministry of water resources, secretary, water resources department, and chairman of the Central Water Commission.
Dr Joshi stated that the government believed that the under-construction barrage had no clearances either from the Central Water Commission or the Central Electricity Authority.
It sought their intervention and a direction to Karnataka not to proceed with the construction.
In the complaint, copies of which were released to the media on Wednesday, the TS government stated that Karnataka had projected several projects as also storages before the Krishna Waters Disputes Tribunal-2. Karnataka had also submitted a master plan before the KWDT-2 in which the construction of the barrage was not contemplated.
The KWDT-2 had allocated Karnataka about 130 TMC ft under the Upper Krishna Project by raising the Almatti dam height from 519.6 to 524.4 metres. This is yet to be notified as the Supreme Court had stayed its publication way back in 2011.
The TS government also stated that construction of such a big structure with a substantially high storage capacity on the inter-state river would obstruct both the early and lean flows.
The Girijapur barrage will obstruct inflows into the Jurala reservoir, depriving its canal systems of water. The complaint noted that even after mid-August this year, the Jurala project had not received any inflows. It is very likely that the diversion of water by the Girijapur barrage would result in excess utilisation of water by Karnataka.
SC seeks Centre’s reply on TS plea:
The Supreme Court on Wednesday asked counsel for the Centre to take instructions on a writ petition filed by Telangana state for a direction to the Centre to set up a new tribunal to resolve the Krishna river water dispute with AP, Karnataka and Maharashtra.
A bench of Justices Dipak Misra and R. Banumathi, without issuing a notice on the petition, asked the Centre’s counsel to inform it on September 10 as to what action it proposed to take on the complaint sent by the TS government demanding a new tribunal.
The bench wanted the Centre to inform whether it had taken steps to fill the vacancy caused in the Tribunal due to resignation of Justice Deepak Seth as Karnataka senior counsel Anil Divan had informed that though the existing tribunal could adjudicate the issue, it could not function due to the vacancy of a member.
In its petition, the TS government said that after the state was formed, it had represented to the Centre to set up a new tribunal relating to disputes on the use, distribution or control of Krishna waters.
TS senior counsel C.S. Vaidynathan submitted that under the law, the Centre had to take a decision within a year for setting up the new tribunal but it has not taken any decision and had not responded to the state’s complaint.
( Source : deccan chronicle )
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