The Telangana government has welcomed the change in the policy of the Centre in the matter of according national status to irrigation projects following its approval to the Upper Bhadra project in Karnataka as national project and requested the latter to extend the similar status to Kaleshwaram project.
Vice Chairman of the Telangana State Planning Board B. Vinod Kumar urged the Ministry of Jal Shakti (MoJS) on Saturday to send the proposal of Kaleshwaram project, lying with it for long, to the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) for according the national project status. “Kaleshwaram has secured all clearances and approvals from the MoJS and the Ministry of Environment and Forests and it’s very much eligible to get the national project status”, he suggested.
In contrast, the Upper Bhadra project in the K-8 sub-basin of Krishna with an estimated cost of ₹21,473 was being take up in violation of the tribunal award. Against the allocation of 9 tmc ft water to it at 65% dependability by the Brijesh Kumar Tribunal (KWDT-II), which is yet to be notified by the Centre, the Karnataka government has designed the project for utlisation of 29.9 tmc ft water.
The Central Water Commission (CWC) did not deem it fit even to inform the lower riparian States, Telangana being one of it, while approving the project although it is mandatory, he observed and wondered how a project would be given clearance when the matter of water allocation is pending in the Supreme Court.
He brought to the notice of MoJS that the Telangana government’s request for according national project status to Kaleshwaram was pending for over five years. He mentioned that Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao had written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on February 11, 2016 with the request to accord national project status to Kaleshwaram.
Similarly, the then Irrigation Minister T. Harish Rao wrote to the then Union Water Resources Ministers Uma Bharati and Nitin Gadkari in 2016 and 2018, respectively with the same plea and MPs of Telangana Rashtra Samithi too had raised the matter in Parliament several times. However, Mr. Gadkari had categorically announced in Lok Sabha in August 2018 that the Centre had discontinued the process of giving national status to irrigation projects.
However, in contrary to that announcement the CWC had approved the Upper Bhadra project without taking into consideration the concerns of lower riparian Stated and recommended it for according national status, Mr. Vinod Kumar noted adding that the proposal would come before the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs for its concurrence. He pointed out that it would be a discrimination against Telangana if the similar status was denied to Kaleshwarm.