Despite Centre’s U-turn, Telangana government has options: Expert

TS officials said they were expecting the Centre would come to their rescue before the Supreme Court since injustice was done to the region for the past six decades in getting more waters from the River Krishna, though it has a significant catchment area of the river. TS government also stated that Telangana-centric arguments over its rights over Krishna utilisation were not heard since the state was newly-formed.

However, Centre’s counsel on Tuesday filed an affidavit in the SC that was totally contrary to what TS was expecting. The affidavit opposed any fresh review by the Brijesh Kumar Tribunal sought by TS and stated that the Tribunal should only look into further distribution of the en-bloc allotment of 1,004 TMC ft granted by the Tribunal to united AP in 2010 among TS and AP.

The Central government’s stand on the issue was welcomed by both Karnataka and Maharashtra, who have been pleading against the contentions of TS government.

The Centre’s affidavit was filed after repeated warnings by the Apex Court demanding its stand on the dispute. However, the matter was adjourned for further hearing to Thursday. Expecting that the Apex Court adjudicates the matter on the lines of what the Centre, Maharasthra and Karnataka are pleading, the TS government has started looking at the alternatives to fight both legally and politically.

“We will see how Supreme Court finally adjudicate the matter on Thursday. We have further options in the matter, will utilise them,” TS irrigation advisor and former Central Water Commission chief engineer R. Vidya Sagar Rao said. Section (3) of the Inter-State Disputes Act, if any particular state government files a petition before the Union government seeking adjudication of the matter, it is mandated to initiate such steps to resolve the issue and in case it fails to adjudicate within an year, the same petition should be referred to a Tribunal. “Since we have filed petition on July 14, 2014, till July 2015, the Centre did not initiate any proceedings to resolve the dispute, hence as per the Act it should be referred to a Tribunal. When that was the legal stand how can Centre now says distribution should be limited to two states and not to four states? We can file a case challenging the Centre’s petition, Mr Vidya Sagar Rao said.

Since AP government is also in favour of fresh review by the Brijesh Kumar Tribunal, it filed a petition in the Apex Court way back in 2013 stating the manner and approach by the Tribunal in determining the total quantum of Krishna waters and even changing the 75 per cent dependability norm thereby causing immense injustice to AP. The petition is now pending, AP also raises objections over implementation of Section 89 of the AP Reorganisation Act which provides ambiguity over jurisdiction of the Brijesh Kumar Tribunal — whether it’s for two or for four states. TS should now coordinate with AP politically to get the issue resolved amicably, Mr Vidya Sagar Rao feels.

It was last Friday that Union water resources minister Uma Bharati assured TRS MPs that a new Tribunal would be constituted for fresh distribution of Krishna water among all the four riparian states, but on Tuesday, the Union minister, through the Central government counsel did the opposite by conveying to the Supreme Court that it was not needed.

This was disclosed by Karimnagar TRS senior MP B. Vinod Kumar in Delhi after Centre’s ‘U’ turn on its stand. “I and Nizamabad MP K. Kavitha met Uma Bharati and informed her on what had happened in the Supreme Court during the hearing. We pleaded with her to instruct Central government counsel to file an affidavit in the Apex Court ordering constitution of a fresh Tribunal. She said she would be doing so and that the concerned file was ready. She said she need only sign and send the file it to the officials.”

Mr Vinod Kumar continued, “To our surprise and shock today, Central government Counsel filed an affidavit that was completely contrary to the promise Uma Bharati made to us. It was quite contrary to what the Centre had been stating all these days.”He said that Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao will draw a strategy to ensure justice to Telangana, a state that has been deprived of justice in the matters of allocation of Krishna waters.

Tuesday’s stand of the Centre was contrary to what its counsel, senior advocate V. Mohana, had informed the court on December 3 that the water resources minister had signed the file for setting up a fresh tribunal. Earlier, senior counsel C.S. Vaidynathan for TS had submitted that as per law, the Centre was to take a decision within one year for setting up a new tribunal. He said the Union of India had a statutory obligation to refer the dispute to a new tribunal and said the Centre’s stand was surprising and contrary to what it had stated on December 3.

In its petition, TS said the right to access water being a human rights issue, fresh allocation of water must be made and the earlier award should be set aside. The state asked for a direction to set aside the award in its entirety on allocation of water among AP, Maharashtra and Karnataka. It said the award required a fresh consideration and adjudication of the disputes as TS, which was vitally affected, had come into existence only on June 2, 2014 and did not have an opportunity to present its case. It said so far as meeting the water requirement of the state and its inhabitants, TS was facing the grim prospect of being left literally high and dry with hardly any water reaching its borders from any one of the three arms of the river Krishna, namely Bhima, Tungabhadra or the main Krishna. The Bench posted the matter to December 10.