A letter from the Telangana government to the Krishna River Management Board (KRMB) is misleading, according to Irrigation Department officials.
Appeal
On May 30, the day Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao announced that the two Telugu States should resolve the disputes related to the Krishna and Godavari rivers amicably, the Special Chief Secretary of Telangana dashed off a letter to the KRMB appealing it to keep the shifting of its office to Vijayawada, located on the banks of the Krishna, in abeyance.
The Andhra Pradesh government has written several letters to the Union Ministry of Water Resources asking that the KRMB office be shifted to Vijayawada in line with the provisions of the reorganisation Act, 2014.
‘Reorganisation Act supreme’
Mr. Chandrasekhar Rao, who came to attend the swearing-in of YSR Congress Party president Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy as the new Chief Minister of A.P., said that both the States should sit and resolve the problems amicably, but the TS Special Chief Secretary in the letter written on the very same day, told the KRMB to keep shifting of the office in abeyance as a decision on the constitution of the Krishna Water Decision Implementation Board (KWDIB) by the Krishna Water Dispute Tribunal – II (KWDT-II) was “in an advanced stage.”
AP irrigation officials said that the Special Chief Secretary’s letter was misleading as the KWDT-II order had been challenged in the Supreme Court by A.P. Without a judgment from the apex court, there was no scope for implementation of the tribunal order. Irrigation officials added that the reorganisation Act, was an act of Parliament and had precedence over the order of the tribunal.