The Centre has decided to go ahead with notifying the jurisdiction of both Krishna River Management Board (KRMB) and Godavari River Management Board (GRMB) as per the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act, Union Minister of Jal Shakti Gajendra Singh Shekawat said at the second Apex Council meeting held with Chief Ministers of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy and K. Chandrasekhara Rao respectively.
The jurisdiction of both KRMB and GRMB have not been decided even after six years of bifurcation of the State. Mr. Jagan Mohan Reddy took part in the virtual meet at New Delhi.
It was learnt that though the Chief Minister Telangana dissented, the Centre struck to its stand saying that no consensus was needed and soon the jurisdiction of both KRMB and GRMB would be notified.
The Chief Ministers of both States agreed to submit the Detailed Project Reports (DPRs) of all the projects taken up by the two Telugu States and the technical appraisal of the DPRs would be completed as soon as possible.
Major decisions
Among the other major decisions taken with regard to contentious issue of sharing of river waters between the two States included decision to withdraw cases filed in the Supreme Court by the Telangana government to enable Centre to move forward on referring the water sharing issues to the tribunal under Section-3 of Inter States River Water Disputes Act of 1956, after taking legal opinion.
The Centre also asked both States to send their requests with regard to sharing of river waters of the Godavari to enable the Centre to refer to the tribunal under ISWRD Act-1956. The Chief Minister of Telangana agreed to this proposal. It was also agreed to shift the KRMB headquarters to Andhra Pradesh.
Limited role
Stating that the States have a limited role in allocation of river waters as the water allocations are done by the tribunals, the Minister said that in case of the Krishna waters, the allocations done by KWDT-I are being heard by KWDT-II and the award would be published soon.
In case of the Godavari waters, the GWDT had not given any en-bloc allocations of the Godavari water to the two States and the Minister said that the en-bloc and project allocations was needed for appraisal of DPRs of projects in the basin.
Further, the Minister also said that a mechanism for sharing of river waters in the Godavari basin between the two States was necessary either by mutual agreement or through a new tribunal. It was also decided that a mechanism should be worked out for sharing of 45 tmcft of the Godavari waters diverted from Polavaram to Prakasam Barrage.
Besides the Chief Ministers of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, higher officials of the Ministry of Jal Shakti and the two member States were present at the virtual meeting.