Kakinada: Pumping of Godavari waters to Krishna Delta from Pattiseema was stopped on Sunday, after the Deputy Chief Minister and revenue minister Pilli Subhash-chandra Bose made a statement about stoppage of Godavari waters to Krishna Delta through Pattiseema 24 hours back.
According to sources, the Pattiseema Project engineers started release of Godavari waters to Krishna Delta from June 27 saying that they were receiving surplus waters from upstream and Sileru and more than 7,000 cusecs of waters was diverted to Krishna Delta.
However, the issue created a flutter in the farming community of West Godavari and the MLAs of West Godavari expressed their concern at a meeting in Eluru on Saturday over the release of waters to Krishna delta even before the Godavari Delta got water. The Deputy Chief Minister Mr Bose assured in the meeting that steps would be taken to stop diversion of Godavari waters to Krishna Delta, till it catered to the needs of Godavari Delta. He said that he would bring it to the notice of the Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy.
The superintendent engineer of Pattiseema Project B.Veera Kumar said that on June 27, the Godavari flowed above 14 metres and according to the conditions and objects of Pattiseema project, if this was the case, the surplus waters should be diverted to Krishna Delta and the diversion of waters started with six pumps from Thursday. He added that gradually, the flow decreased and the lifting of Godavari waters was also reduced from 4 pumps and 2 pumps respectively for past two days. On Sunday, the water levels fell drastically and the diversion of Godavari waters to Krishna Delta from Pattiseema Project was stopped.
He said that there was no use if Godavari receives flood waters, unless the waters were diverted to Krishna Delta because it would just flow into the sea. He said that all steps were being taken according to guidelines and conditions of the project.
According to sources, nearly 7,000 cusecs of Godavari waters per day had been diverted to Krishna Delta for the past three days.
Pattiseema turns inter-state issue
Pattiseema Project has become an inter-state and inter-district problem on utilisation of Godavari waters. The Godavari river provides livelihood for Godavari districts in Andhra Pradesh and the river’s share is distributed to Telangana, Maharashtra and Karnataka.
When Pattiseema was constructed amidst several protests, the government said that only flood waters would be supplied to Krishna delta, that too for drinking water purposes and to cater to industrial needs. But, the entire Krishna delta has been cultivated with Pattiseema Lift Irrigation Scheme.
But, this year, the officials released Godavari waters to Krishna Delta even before completion of seedlings in Godavari Delta ayacut. The Rythu Karyacharana Samithi-AP official spokesperson Manthena Suryanara-yana Raju said that though the previous government said that Pattiseema was part of Polavaram project, there was no connection with Polavaram and there were no permissions from the Central Water Commission or other Water Body Agencies. Former chief minister N. Chandrababu Naidu had emphasised in the past that only excess flood waters would be diverted to Krishna Delta from Godavari through Pattiseema.
According to the Water Board, 80 TMCs of waters can be utilised by the Krishna Delta from Nagarjunasagar Ayacut and the remaining 101 TMCs water would be utilised by Nagarjuna-sagar. The flood and rainwater can be utilised from Krishna Basin to Krishna Delta. Mr Suryanarayana Raju said that however, when Polavaram Project was sanctioned by the Central Government, there was a clause that after launching Polava-ram, Krishna River waters should be stopped to Krishna Delta as 45 TMCs of water for combined AP, 24 TMCs of Water for Karnataka and 11 TMCs of Water for Maharashtra could be shared. Telangana also wrote a letter to divert 45 TMCs of water to their state. He said that the Rythu Karyacharana Samithi condemned this injustice done to Andhra Pradesh and got a legal order in favour of AP. He said that in such conditions, Pattiseema waters should not be diverted to Krishna Delta, unless there were flood waters or surplus waters. He said, “Godavari Delta farmers are striving hard to get water for their crops and the new government should take steps to save the Delta by acting wisely with other states, in particular the Telangana Government.”
