Finalising the working manual for the Krishna River Management Board (KRMB) is back to square one with the Telangana Government pointing out that the draft manual was yet to be approved by the board and the member-secretary of the board had erroneously assumed that it was approved at the August 22 meeting.
Apart from raising the question over the board approval to the draft working manual, the Telangana Government pointed out that it had found certain deviations in the draft from what was discussed at the previous meetings.
In a letter addressed to Member-Secretary of the KRMB Samir Chatterjee, Special Chief Secretary (Irrigation) of Telangana S.K. Joshi reiterated inclusion of the State Government's views.
They include making the board responsible for the security and safety of irrigation/water resources, infrastructure under their control, and some other paras in the functions of the board.
The Telangana Government also pointed out that the XI Schedule had only some basic principles governing the functioning of the river management boards and was not comprehensive and complete with the entire list of ongoing projects.
Stating that the main objective of the KRMB was to build up consensus between the two Telugu States and matters where it was unable to do so should be referred to the Apex Council, the Telangana Government underlined that always there was scope for addition and deletion in the governing principles by the Brijesh Kumar Tribunal as its award and order were yet to come into effect.
Further, the Telangana Government wants deletion of all 10 sub-paras in the governing principles, not vesting the right of decision-making in the chairperson in case of lack of consensus among the States, and inclusion of projects such as Alimineti Madhava Reddy Srisailam Left Bank Canal, Palamuru-Rangareddy Lift Irrigation Scheme and Dindi Lift Irrigation Scheme in para 10 where there is mention of certain projects.
The Telangana Government also wants that the decisions of the board should be final and binding on States only if it is arrived at by consensus.