The Hindu : Karnataka News : A.P. projects: Somashekar hits out at State Govt.

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Apr 04, 2005

Karnataka

Karnataka

A.P. projects: Somashekar hits out at State Govt.

By Our Special Correspondent

GULBARGA, APRIL 3. The State unit of the Janata Dal (United) today urged the State Government to pressure the UPA Government to provide infrastructure and staff to the new tribunal constituted to decide the share of the surplus waters in the Krishna among Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra.

Addressing presspersons here, the President of the State unit of the party, B. Somashekar, and its Vice-President, Basavaraj Ingin, regretted that even after a year of the constitution of the tribunal the Union Government has not provided an office to enable it to begin its sitting.

They accused the State Government of doing little to protect the interests of the State, both in utilising its rightful share of 729 tmcft of water allocated by the Bachawat Tribunal under Scheme A and taking steps to claim the rightful share in the surplus waters.

Mr. Somashekar said the State Government has also been complacent on the blatant violation by the Andhra Pradesh which has taken up several "illegal" projects.

Surplus waters

He said that the State Government besides lodging a complaint with the Union Government to stop these projects, should also move the new tribunal seeking a direction that Andhra Pradesh immediately stop the construction till the issue of sharing the surplus waters in the Krishna is settled by it.

Mr. Somashekar said that the Bachawat Tribunal, while fixing the share of waters among the riparian States under the Scheme A had stated that Karnataka has the rightful claim for 50 per cent of the surplus water in the river and according to one study about 300 tmcft of surplus water is available in the river and the State Government should get ready with projects for utilising at least 150 tmcft of water likely to be allotted to the State by the new tribunal.

He said that successive governments in the State had neglected the irrigation sector, particularly in the Krishna Basin, with lesser financial allocation and the same trend continued even now.

Besides allocating less funds for the ongoing projects in Scheme A of the award, the Government has also not provided adequate funds for the projects to utilise the share of the surplus waters which will be allocated to the State by the new tribunal.

Mr. Somashekar said that the State also faces another threat of the unutilised water in Scheme A of the Bachawat Tribunal award being treated as surplus by the new tribunal. Therefore, the State Government should take all steps, including filing an application before the tribunal, to ensure that the unutilised share of the river waters is not treated as surplus.

Special session

To a question, he said that the Janata Dal (U) is not in favour of convening a special session of the Assembly to discuss the unauthorised projects taken up by Andhra Pradesh.

It is waiting for the outcome of the proposed all-party delegation, led by the Chief Minister, N. Dharam Singh, that is going to meet the Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh, on the issue.

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