Telangana's interests on Krishna river safe: Uttam

HYDERABAD: Telangana irrigation minister N. Uttam Kumar Reddy on Wednesday said the government will not allow any injustice to the state on its rights and share to the Krishna river waters in the ongoing dispute with Andhra Pradesh on the issue.

Uttam, who was in Delhi on a day when the Supreme Court heard a writ petition filed by Andhra Pradesh, said the court has posted the next hearing to February 27, and asked both sides to submit their arguments in short notes by February 25. Uttam said Andhra Pradesh filed the case challenging the validity of additional terms of reference (TOR) issued by the Centre for the Krishna Waters Disputes Tribunal (KWDT) in 2023 and that any resolution of the dispute should be as per pre-revised terms of reference.

In the meanwhile, Uttam said a planned meeting of the Krishna Water Disputes Tribunal-II (KWDT-II), chaired by Justice Brijesh Kumar (KWDT-II), scheduled for February 21 to 23 will go on as scheduled.

Today the court did not provide any relief to AP, the minister said adding that this is a good development for Telangana.

It may be recalled that as per the provisions of section 89 of the AP Reorganization Act 2014, KWDT-II was to make project-wise specific allocations if such allocations were not made by a tribunal set up as per the Inter State River Water Disputes Act of 1956.

The previous terms of reference meant that the already existing project-wise allocations could not be touched, restricting the amount of water to be distributed afresh to Telangana.

In 2015, Telangana went to the Supreme Court asking for setting up a new tribunal which eventually paved the way for the central government to issue a new TOR to KWDT-II in October 2023. Under the new TOR, project-wise means existing, on-going and contemplated projects of both the states of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, which with Telangana having more projects on the river in all, should see it getting a larger share of the river’s water.