Hyderabad: The Union Jal Shakti ministry on Friday said the gazette notification establishing the jurisdiction of the Krishna and the Godavari river boards was issued after much deliberation and after taking all the issues and arguments into consideration.
It rubbished reports of the ministry taking a 'unilateral decision' and issuing the gazette notification all of a sudden. It stated that it had acted as per the provisions of the AP Reorganisation Act, 2014, and there was no violation of any norms as such.
Ministry officials addressed a press conference in this regard in Delhi on Monday.
Joint secretary Sanjay Awasthi said the process to notify the jurisdiction of the Krishna River Management Board and the Godavari River Management Board was initiated way back in 2014 when Andhra Pradesh was bifurcated.
"The water allocation to AP and Telangana will be made based on AP Reorganisation Act, 2014. An Apex Council was set up as per Section 84 of this Act to resolve water sharing disputes between both the states. This council comprising the Chief Ministers of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh met for the first time in 2016 but could not resolve issues. It again met in October 2020 but without much outcome. We have taken a final decision on issuing gazette notification after a detailed discussion in the Central Water Commission," Awasthi said.
He said under Schedule-I of the gazette notification, the names of all projects over the Krishna and the Godavari were mentioned. Under Schedule-II, the names of projects placed under the jurisdiction of the KRMB and the GRMB were mentioned. He said Central Industrial Security Force personnel will be deployed at all these projects.
The projects mentioned under Schedule-III will be monitored by respective state governments as usual, he added.
