Hyderabad: Senior counsel A.K. Ganguly on Monday told the Justice Brijesh Kumar Tribunal that unless a relook into the whole distribution and project-specific allocations are made, it is not possible for the Tribunal to limit its jurisdiction to TS and AP. He was arguing on behalf of the AP government.
Mr Ganguly, referring to Section 85 of the AP Reorganisation Act, said that it was imperative to appraise any proposal for construction of new projects on the Godavari and Krishna rivers and undertake a study to assess the negative impact on the projects already completed or taken before the appointed day as mandated in the Section.
Referring to the XI Schedule of AP Reorganisation Act, he argued that of the six projects indicated in the Act under Para 10, Telugu Ganga has already been considered by the Tribunal and was allocated 25 tmc ft of water. The existing water sharing arrangements among the remaining five projects shall continue, and therefore they would have to be considered by the tribunal for allocation of the remaining water.
Mr Ganguly said that the scope of Section 89, in plain language, is not restricted to two states, otherwise Parliament would have said so. Exercise of project-wise allocations cannot be restricted to only truncated part of the river system but involves all four states, he said.
Referring to sub-section B of Sec 89, Mr Ganguly argued that to make project-wise releases there has to be project-wise allocations.
Referring to the observations by KWDT-I and KWDT-II, he argued that the whole Krishna River basin has to be considered as single hydrological unit.
Unless this is done, it would not be possible to determine operative protocol in the event of deficit, Mr Ganguly said, adding that it was necessary that all the projects are integrated to regulate flows. Then only operational protocol can be evolved, he said. He argued that Parliament was the supreme authority and the Centre has no role in deciding the scope of Section 89.
No violation of Act by Telangana, says Centre
Union minister of state for water resources Sanwar Lal Jat on Monday told TD MP C.M. Ramesh that the TS government has not violated any provisions of the AP Reorganisation Act in respect of Palamuru-Rangareddy and Nakkalagandi projects.
In his written reply, Prof. Jat said that AP has complained that TS took up these projects without approval of CWC and KRMB and was in violation of Sections 84 (3), 85 (8) (D) and Para 7 of the 11th Schedule of the Act.
He said that so far, no proposals have been received for techno-economic appraisal in respect of these projects.
