Telangana Government has requested the Godavari River Management one more time to forward the detailed project reports (DPRs) of six projects, which were not new and taken up during the erstwhile Andhra Pradesh, to the Central Water Commission (CWC) for obtaining necessary clearance without any further loss of time.
Projects whose DPRs were submitted to the river board include Choutpally Hanmanth Reddy (CHR), Sita Rama (SR), Chinna Kaleswaram (Mukteshwar) Chanakha-Korata, Tupakulagudem and Modikuntavagu lift irrigation schemes for its perusal (appraisal) and forwarding them to CWC for further appraisal and according clearances.
In a letter addressed to Chairman of the GRMB J. Chandrashekhar Iyer, Engineer-in-Chief C. Muralidhar of Telangana observed that the two river boards (GRMB and KRMB) formed as per the provisions of the AP Reorganisation Act 2014 were found to be taking varying stands in the matter of appraising the DPRs submitted by the two member States.
By delaying the examination/appraisal of the DPRs the GRMB was delaying the process of getting approvals to the projects within six months as stated in the gazette notification on the purview of the two river boards issued on July 15. He also pointed out that examining technical aspects such as irrigation planning, cost estimates, designs and others were not in the purview of the river board as they had to be appraised and cleared by the CWC and its Directorates.
Further, he mentioned that Krishna River Management Board had simply forwarded the DPR of Rayalaseema Lift Irrigation Scheme (RLIS) submitted by AP to CWC stating that it (board) had no technical expertise to appraise it. Mr. Muralidhar also brought to the GRMB Chairman’s notice that given technical clearances to the completed and ongoing projects was the responsibility of the CWC and not of the river boards.
He explained that the six projects whose DPRs were submitted by Telangana would not come under Clause 85 (8) (d) of the APRA as they were not new projects and were grounded during the combined AP Government itself. The projects were included in the unapproved projects category in the gazette notification wrongly and fall under Clause 2 (f) – explanation (ii) and as per Clause 2 (f), the DPRs of unapproved projects have to be cleared by CWC after examination by the river boards under the provisions of APRA.
He brought to the GRMB Chairman’s notice that utilisation of water envisaged by the six projects fall well within the earmarked utilisation of 967.94 tmc ft.
