In a review meeting with the irrigation department on Saturday, Chief Minister Revanth Reddy directed officials to present arguments in the Supreme Court, urging that there should be no intervention by the Godavari and Krishna River Management Boards until the water sharing process is finalized by the Brijesh Kumar Tribunal. According to the AP Reorganization Act, the tribunal is responsible for determining water distribution between Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, along with project-specific allocations. To date, the tribunal has only gathered opinions and evidence from the state governments.

Hyderabad: Stressing that the Brijesh Kumar Tribunal had not completed the water sharing between Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy asked why the decisions of the Krishna River and Godavari River Management Boards should be considered.

During a review meeting with irrigation department here on Saturday, he advised the officials to present arguments in the Supreme Court that there should be no interference of Godavari and Krishna boards until the water sharing was completed by the Tribunal. As per the AP Reorganization Act, Brijesh Kumar Tribunal has been entrusted with the responsibility of water sharing between Telangana and Andhra Pradesh and the project-wise water allocations. So far, the tribunal had only collected opinions and evidence from the State governments.

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The officials briefed the Chief Minister that the two States would present their arguments before the tribunal soon. After considering the arguments, the tribunal would take its decision and announce the same, they said.

Referring to international water principles, he instructed the officials to present arguments so that Telangana gets 70 percent of the water share out of 1005 TMC of available water from River Krishna. He also reminded that since Andhra Pradesh was utilizing 80 TMC of Godavari water for Krishna Delta through Polavaram, 45 TMC of water was allocated to Telangana upstream of Nagarjunasagar in return.