The Godavari River Management Board (GRMB) has decided to approach the Apex Council of the Ministry of Water Resources (MoWR) on the definition of new projects as Andhra Pradesh and Telangana have difference of opinion on it given that there is no clarity on the issue in the AP Reorganisation Act.
The Apex Council, along with the river boards of Godavari and Krishna, was constituted under the provisions of the AP Reorganisation Act and it is chaired by Union Water Resources Minister with the Chief Ministers of the two Telugu states as its other members. The decision was taken at the seventh meeting of the board held here on Tuesday, following continued complaints by the two States against each other on the issue of “new” projects, particularly on Pattiseema, Chagalnadu and Purushothapatnam in AP and Kaleshwaram in Telangana. While both States claim their projects to be old ones or part of old ones, they have been pointing the finger at each other.
Chaired by S. K. Sahu, the meeting was attended by Engineers-in-Chief of the two States, member-secretary of the board Samir Chatterjee and irrigation officials of the two States.
With the consent of AP and Telangana, the board meeting has also given technical clearance to the Middle Kolab multi-purpose project taken up by Odisha in the Godavari Basin.
Difference of opinion
Officials stated that the two States had agreed on installation of telemetry equipment for measuring contribution of water by various tributaries of the river Godavari in the first phase. Although the two States had agreed to furnish detailed project reports (DPR) of new projects in the basin, difference of opinion between the two was understood to have stopped them from submitting DPR.
It was learnt that Telangana had submitted its objections to diversion of Godavari water to the Krishna Basin through the Pattiseema project, particularly in the wake of its demand for compensatory allocation of water in the Krishna in lieu of diversion of Godavari water to the Krishna delta.
Other decisions taken at the meeting include AP agreeing to deposit about ₹3.20 crore, the balance amount of budgetary fund for 2018-19, to examine the issue of draft staff absorption rules and to extend the provisions of Central Service (medical attendance) rules to Central and State government employees deputed to work for the GRMB.