BJP plans campaign on Krishna water

The Maharashtra unit of the BJP has decided to launch a massive public awakening campaign against the government's failure to utilise the state's share of Krishna water.

The Bachhwat Commission had allotted 560, 700 and 800 thousand million cubic feet (TMC) water to Maharashtra, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh respectively in 1973. When the award was declared, 421.6 TMC water was already being used for irrigation or projects to utilise it were under way. The government had to initiate new irrigation projects to use the remaining 140 TMC.

Barring the four-and-a-half year rule of the BJP-Sena, the state always had a Congress or Congress-led government, but no serious effort was made to ensure that the state benefits from the 140 TMC water, alleged BJP spokesman Madhav Bhandari.

Both Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh are now demanding before the review commission that since Maharashtra doesn't need 140 TMC of water, it should be given to them. According to the state government, it will take around Rs 12,000 crore and four to five years to complete all the irrigation projects and their distribution channels in western Maharashtra.

Despite spending nearly Rs 46,000 crore on irrigation projects since the formation of the state in 1960, only 15 per cent of the state could be irrigated when it had the potential for 30 per cent, Bhandari claimed.