Andhra Pradesh officials urged the Bajaj Committee that the Centre should notify the jurisdiction of the Krishna River Management Board (KRMB) to put an end to inter-state water disputes among two Telugu states.
In the absence of jurisdiction, they said that the KRMB was unable to exercise its authority over water management in the two States, particularly in the common reservoirs of Srisailam and Nagarjuna Sagar. Since the operation of Nagarjuna Sagar. was with Telangana, the release orders issued by KRMB were not implemented in time, AP alleged.
According to Sec 87 of the AP Reorganisation Act, the Centre has to notify the jurisdiction of KRMB. Pending such notification, they deplored that the head regulators and off takes of the common reservoirs of Srisailam and Nagarjuna Sagar projects falling in the territories of AP and Telangana have to be operated and maintained by the respective States.
The committee headed by A K Bajaj, former Chairman of the Central Water Commission, visited Amaravati, after their meeting with Telangana authorities in Hyderabad. AP official said that they said that they have been facing enormous problems in getting timely water and requested the panel to settle the disputes over sharing of Krishna waters as early as possible.
The committee was constituted by the Union Water Resources Ministry to assist the KRMB in preparing a working manual, operational protocol for sharing Krishna waters between the two States post-bifurcation of united AP. AP officials expressed concern that they were not getting its allocated water in time and in specified quantity, there by losing valuable crop and yield.
The committee was requested to keep the diversions of Telangana, which was an upper riparian State in mind, while considering the issue of Principles of Sharing of Water diverted from Godavari to Krishna as per the Award.
