The KWDT-II is currently hearing disputes related to water sharing between Telangana and AP only. Its extended term would expire on March 31, 2024
Published Date – 22 March 2024, 01:33 PM
Hyderabad: The extension given to the Krishna Water Disputes Tribunal-II till July 31, 2025 by the Ministry of Jal Shakti was welcomed by the irrigation engineers and experts in the State on Friday. We must be thankful to the Ministry of Jal Shakti for extending its term by little over one year instead of dragging further the exercise aimed at resolving the long winding legal tangle involving the riparian states of TS and AP over sharing of the river water.
In view of the ‘further terms of reference” given by the Centre to the Tribunal by issuing gazette notification in June, 2023, tasking it with the distribution and allocation of the river waters between the two Telugu States from the undivided State’s en block allocation of 811 tmc made by the KWDT-I.
A senior official from the State irrigation department felt that any further extension of the term beyond one year or any further would not be in the interest of the State as it had already paid a heavy price because of the raw deal meted out in water sharing being made for over a decade the basis of an unjust ad hoc arrangement put in place for just one year after the reorganization of the State.
The Krishna Water Disputes Tribunal was constituted in 2004 for adjudicating disputes over water sharing between Maharashtra, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh.
The Tribunal submitted it report in December 2010. Challenging its award on multiple grounds, AP filed a special leave petition in the Supreme Court in March 2011.
Following the reorganisation of AP leading to the formation of Telangana State on June 2, 2014, the term of the Tribunal was being extended on a yearly basis. The KWDT-II is currently hearing disputes related to water sharing between Telangana and AP only. Its extended term would expire on March 31, 2024.
The tribunal has almost completed the task assigned to it by the Ministry of Jal Shakti and as it has to complete its hearing on the issues involved in accordance with the further terms of reference. The extension of its term till July 31, 2025 is “necessary and justified”, said irrigation experts. This is what we desired too. Telangana submitted its statement of case (SOC) on the further terms of reference given to the Tribunal recently and AP was also expected to fulfill the formality soon enabling the Tribunal to complete the exercise for delivering the final award, said the officials.
Former Chairman of the Telangana water resources Development Corporation, V Prakash Rao hoped that the Tribunal would complete its assignment well before July 2025. The Tribunal was appointed during the tenure of
Atal Bihari Vajpayee as the Prime Minister and much water had flown down Krishna during the past two decades. The tribunal should conduct weekly sittings if needed to end the protracted process and ensure a fair deal for the riparian states, he stressed.
