From Our Special Correspondent
Daijiworld Media Network
Bengaluru, Oct 19: At a time when Karnataka is embroiled in a legal tussle with its neighbouring State Tamil Nadu in the Supreme Court over the sharing of Cauvery river waters as per the Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal, the State received a shot in the arm with respect to another dispute over the Second Krishna Water Disputes Tribunal’s decision against having a relook into fresh reallocation of rivers waters among four riparian states of Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Maharashtra.
Warmly appreciating the decision of the Second Krishna Water Disputes Tribunal, Karnataka’s Water Resources Minister M B Patil said the decision to reject the Telangana State Government’s plea for seeking reallocation of Krishna river water has “vindicated our stand on the issue”.
In its 2010 report, the Brijesh Kumar Tribunal had allocated 666 TMCft of Krishna water to Maharashtra, 911 TMCft to Karnataka and 1,001 TMCft to the undivided Andhra Pradesh State.
The Tribunal’s decision to turn down the demand for reallocation was a major setback to Telangana.
The KWDT-II headed by Justice Brijesh Kumar said it would take up distribution of water allocation to combined Andhra Pradesh to Telangana and residuary Andhra Pradesh States and not have a fresh relook into allocation of water among the riparian States.
The minister said Karnataka had made a strong plea against any steps to reallocate the Krishna water afresh.
Patil said that “today’s decision will help us to go ahead with our plans to utilise our share of Krishna water as allocated by the tribunal earlier”.
“Our legal counsels representing the State before the Tribunal had argued that the reallocation of water should be confined to sharing of water between Andhra Pradesh and Telangana from the share allocated to the erstwhile united Andhra Pradesh,” the minister said.
“With the Tribunal rejecting the petition seeking to have a re-look into the final allocation of waters, we will urge the Centre to issue notification of the final award of the KWDT-II,’’ Patil said.