Hyderabad, January 04: Describing Justice Brijesh Kumar’s award on the Krishna waters allocation as an axe fall on Andhra Pradesh’s interests, senior BJP leader and former Union Minister B Dattatreya today wanted the state government to approach the Supreme Court for relief at least with respect to availability of water to AP and the height of Almatti Dam.
In a letter to the chief minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy, the BJP leader said no purpose would be served if the state went for an appeal before the Krishna Water Dispute Tribunal since the award is likely to be revised. The state government should immediately call an all-party meeting and address the issue, he asserted.
Dattatreya said the award was the result of conflicting arguments that the state government had proffered before the Tribunal.
At one point of time, the state had contended that it was not utilising waters allocated to upper riparian states but in another context it had said that it was utilising the waters.
As regards surplus waters, it had contended that surplus waters were only a myth but when it came to justifying construction of irrigation projects, the state had pointed out that the projects would utilise only surplus waters and that the state would not stake any claim for enhancement of assured waters.
The BJP leader said the tribunal had estimated that the Krishna waters would be of the order of 2293 tmcft. But for the AP state to gets it allocated share of water, the water availability in the river should be over 2578 tmcft.
Whenever there is less water, the state would get very little since there is no deficit sharing mechanism in force, Dattatreya said.
–Agencies