Hyderabad: The Telangana state government intends to extend ‘conditional support’ to the inter-linking of rivers proposed by the Centre, at the South Indian Irrigation Ministers’ Conference to be held in the city on February 20.
Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao has instructed irrigation minister T. Harish Rao to put forth the state government’s strong arguments and concerns on inter-li-nking of rivers and inter-state disputes on sharing of the waters of the Godavari and Krishna rivers.
Mr Harish Rao has been told to make it clear that TS supports interlinking on the condition that the state’s present and future requirements are met first. He will also pitch for national project status for the Kaleshw-aram project. TS also wants interlinking of Mahanadi-Godavari first, before taking up the Godavari (Akinepalli) NSP Tail Pond- Cauvery (Grand anicut) linking.
The irrigation department estimates that TS will require about 1600 TMC of Godavari water, against its earmarked utilisation of 1260 TMC.
The state government is concerned that the proposed barrage at Akinepalli as part of the interlinking, with a storage capacity of 20 TMC, is likely to submerge about 35,000 acres, affecting 55,000 people in 45 villages in Warangal and Khammam districts. This apart, the canal netwo-rk would require another 12,000 acres, which involves huge financial implications for the state government.
The state government’s argument is that with the proposed interlinking, 7.50 lakh acres will get the benefit in the state but due to ongoing projects of the government, the majority of this command area would be covered and there was no need for submergence of villages and acquiring thousands of acres for minor benefit.
The other contention is that the interlinking will pass through a significant forest area and it will be difficult to get clearance, and to find alternative land for compensatory afforestation.
Meanwhile, Mr Harish Rao has received an invitation to attend a meeting convened by the Union ministry of water resources on February 15 in Delhi.
