According to the Bachawat award, Kosta gets 366 TMC, Rayalaseema 122
TMC, and Nizam Telangana gets 260 TMC of water from the River Krishna.
Readers might have noticed that the water allocation does not add up to 800
TMC—the remaining water is retained as a provision for evaporation.
After settling the Krishna River dispute, the central government asked
Bachawat to offer a similar solution to the Godavari River dispute among
Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, and Andhra Pradesh. After another extensive
study, the Bachawat Tribunal, in its final award in 1980, allocated 1,472.7
TMC of Godavari River water to Andhra Pradesh. Out of the 1,472 TMC
available to our state, today, we are only using 514 TMC, and the rest flows
into the ocean.
Interestingly, the Godavari River receives nearly 600 TMC of water
almost at the tail end of the river. Even if Nizam Telangana manages to tap
the Godavari River fully at higher altitudes of its region, it will not affect the
Kosta farmer significantly.
With that primer on the Krishna and Godavari Rivers, let’s quickly
jump into some of the claims made by the Telangana state proponents.
Professor Jayashankar writes in his paper: “Bachawat Tribunal allocated
811 TMC ft. of water to Andhra Pradesh. The allocation of water among
different regions of the state, however, has been the prerogative of the state
government. If catchment area is taken as the principal criterion for allocation
of waters between different regions of the state, as is normally done between
different states of the country, Telangana should get 68.5% of the 811 TMC
ft. If cultivable area, rainfall, subsoil levels of water, backwardness, etc., also are
taken into account Telangana region would be entitled to not less than 70% of
the total quantum of water allocated to the state.”
Professor Jayashankar’s statement is an outrageous distortion. He must
know that Bachawat, after extensive study, awarded water to each state based
on the “protection of existing uses” principle. As a result, existing projects on
Krishna and Godavari are protected. Based on this principle, despite having
a smaller catchment area, Bachawat allocated a larger share of Krishna River
water to the Andhra Pradesh State.
Professor Jayashankar, in his hate-Kosta propaganda paper, further
wrote: “Prakasam Barrage which is meant exclusively for the benefit of Coastal
Andhra is getting two times more water than what is legally allocated to it.
Therefore, it is able to irrigate more than 12 lakh acres of land for the first crop
and more than half of it for the second crop—all water-intensive wet crops.”
The professor yet again twists the facts to suit his purpose. The
Praskasam Barrage is the last stop where the Krishna River waters can be
tapped. Once past this point, the waters flow into the Bay of Bengal. In the
years when there is surplus water, it flows from higher altitudes down to the
Krishna Barrage. This surplus water is channeled to farmers instead of going
to waste in the ocean. This is what Professor Jayashankar claims is an unfair
use of Krishna water. I guess the professor prefers that the river water go to
waste in the ocean, rather than being used for farming in Kosta. |
|
