No need to notify KWDT-2: Telangana tells SC

Telangana on Wednesday informed Supreme Court that Karnataka had not utilised its share of 173 tmcft of water allocated to it by Krishna Water Dispute Tribunal (KWDT)-1 in 1976 and there was no need to notify KWDT-2.

A bench of Justices Suryakant and V Ramasubramanian started hearing Krishna basin states Karnataka, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra petitions. Karnataka and Maharashtra have sought early notification of the KWDT-2 final award delivered in 2013, while Telangana and Andhra Pradesh wanted fresh allocation of water among all river basin states.

Senior Advocate C S Vaidyanathan representing Telangana said that since the KWDT-2 award came before the Telangana was created by carving out of erstwhile united Andhra Pradesh, the new state has no opportunity to place its opinion before the Tribunal.

Demanding fresh allocation of Krishna water by scrapping the KWDT-2 final award, he said his state got just 90 tmcft of water out of 800 tmcft of water in
Krishna basin.

Insisting that it has serious grievances against the decision of the KWDT-2, Vaidhyanathan said that the Tribunal allocated water at lesser dependability on average.

He said irrigation in Karnataka is wasteful since they are drawing 173 tmcft of water under Upper Krishna Project (UKP) for 9 lakh acres of dry crops.

He said Karnataka spent more than Rs 13,000 crore to create infrastructure at its own risk despite the matter being in the Court.

Commenting on Karnataka, he said the maximum disputes that any state has with other states is Karnataka. They have boundary, river and all kinds of disputes, he said.

Senior advocate Shekhar Naphade appearing for Maharashtra sought early notification of the Tribunal final award. Opposing Andhra Pradesh’s stand, he said despite getting lion share, the state does not want to accept the KWDT final award. Despite Krishna originating in Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh wanted lion share in water.

Karnataka on Tuesday informed the Supreme Court that it has already invested Rs 13,321 crore for infrastructure to utilise its share of water in Krishna river basin area and any delay in publication of final award of the Krishna Water Dispute Tribunal final award would be a major blow to the state as its infrastructure will deteriorate. The KWDT-2 allocated 130 tmcft of water to Karnataka. Karnataka completed its
argument.

Hearing of the matter will continue on Thursday also.