The Hindu : A.P. stakes claim to unutilised share of waters

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, May 30, 2003

Southern States

Southern States - Karnataka

A.P. stakes claim to unutilised share of waters

By M. Madan Mohan

HUBLI MAY 29. The Chief Minister, S.M. Krishna's statement that the State is opposed to any renegotiation on the share of water allocated in the Krishna Basin under Scheme `A' of the Bachawat Tribunal has sent confusing signals.

The stand at best reflects what Karnataka expects from the new tribunal, which is likely to be constituted by the Union Government, going by what the Union Minister of State for Water Resources, Arjun Charan Sethi, said in Bangalore recently.

While one has to wait for the exact terms of reference of the new tribunal, the ground realities are different. For, nowhere in the Bachawat Award of 1976 has anything been said about the new tribunal to be constituted to share surplus water. The tribunal would have settled the issue of sharing surplus water successfully, but for Andhra Pradesh, which torpedoed it.

The Bachawat Tribunal began by allocating water to the three riparian States of Maharashtra, Karnataka, and Andhra Pradesh at an agreed quantum of 2,060 tmcft., pending a final settlement on the total share of water in the basin. This was called Scheme `A', which was notified.

Simultaneously, the tribunal prepared what is popularly known as "Scheme B" for sharing surplus water, which was then believed to be about 300 tmcft. Of this, Karnataka was to get 50 per cent. Scheme `B' also provided for the constitution of a river authority for the implementation of the scheme.

While Karnataka and Maharashtra agreed to the proposal, Andhra Pradesh opposed it, because of which Scheme `B' was not notified.

The Bachawat Award held that a review of the allocation could be made after May 2000, and the only rider attached was that "as far as possible, the utilisation within the present allocation should be protected."

Nothing was said in the award about protecting the allocation made under Scheme `A', or that Scheme `B' should concern itself with apportioning the share above 2,060 tmcft. It is in this context that politicians of the State have been demanding that Karnataka utilise its full share before the review.

Karnataka and Maharashtra may, as a matter of fact, welcome any move on the part of the Union Government to ask the new tribunal to go into the allocation of surplus water. Both States have failed to fully utilise the allocated water before the cut off date mentioned in the Bachawat Award.

But Andhra Pradesh will definitely not go along with the other two States. It has fully utilised its share and has invested funds to create infrastructure for the use of additional water. Andhra Pradesh has taken advantage of a clause in the Bachawat Award, allowing the lowest riparian State to use the unutilised water "without prescriptive rights."

It has gone ahead with the implementation of schemes such as Telugu Ganga, unmindful of the objections raised by Karnataka. T

he latter made two unsuccessful efforts to restrain Andhra Pradesh from executing the projects by filing petitions with the Supreme Court. Karnataka has sought to deliberately gloss over its failure to utilise the allocated share of water in its complaint made to the Union Government, seeking the constitution of a new tribunal under the provisions of the Inter-State Water Disputes Act.

But Andhra Pradesh has recounted precisely this. In its demand, Andhra Pradesh has noted that the two other States have failed to utilise their share, and that it should be allowed to appropriate the unutilised share of water. If Andhra Pradesh's stand is upheld, the implications will be disastrous for Karnataka and Maharashtra.

Any move on the part of the NDA Government at the Centre to keep the scope of reviewing the allocation limited to surplus water is likely to be opposed by Andhra Pradesh.

There is no reason for the NDA Government to keep one of its major allies, the TDP, dissatisfied in a bid to help the Congress-run States of Karnataka and Maharashtra.

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