The Apex Council, formed to resolve water disputes between Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, today decided to set up a committee to assess availability of water in the Krishna basin to help the river tribunal decide quantum of water to be shared by the states.
Talking to reporters after the meeting, held in the wake of a July 20 Supreme Court order to this regard, Union Water Resources Minister Uma Bharti said the committee will comprise officials from the ministry as well as engineers of the two state governments.
Besides Bharti, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu and his Telangana counterpart K Chandraeskhar Rao attended the meeting.
"They will assess availability of water basin and that report will be sent to the (Krishna Water Disputes) Tribunal, which will decide quantum of water to be shared by them," she said.
The minister, however, did not specify by when the report will be sent to the tribunal.
She added telemetry system will be installed at locations, to be suggested by the two states, to monitor river inflow and outflow, so that there is no dispute on the data.
Referring to disputes between states on sharing inter- state river waters, Bharti advocated formation of a national water policy in agreement with states.
"Some MPs have even suggested including water in concurrent list. We need to figure out ways for sharing river water," she said.
While the two chief ministers did not speak to media, during the meeting, Andhra Pradesh is learnt to have accused Telangana of undertaking two "new" projects, Palamuru Rangareddy and Dindi Irrigation Schemes, on the river "in violation of AP Reorganisation Act, 2014" and demanded to put those on hold until the Council gives them sanctions.
According to the Act, the two can not take up new project without the Council's approval.
Telangana though maintained that the "ongoing" projects were taken up by erstwhile Andhra Pradesh government, which had sanctioned them based on the liberty given by Krishna Water Disputes Tribunal (KWDT)-I and hence, did not violate the law, a source said.
"Andhra Pradesh raised objections over the projects saying these were taken up violating the Act and sans sanctions from the Council. It also claimed that the project will have adverse impacts on water availability of existing projects of Andhra Pradesh (irrigating 45.72 lakh acres) with assured allocations," the source added.
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