Centre takes control of Krishna, Godavari

Hyderabad: Notwithstanding the plea of the Telangana State Government, the Centre has decided to go ahead with its decision to implement the gazette notification on the jurisdiction of the Krishna River Management Board and Godavari River Management Board. The Jal Shakti Ministry on Monday appointed four senior engineers from the CWC (Central Water Commission) to oversee the management of the projects on these two rivers. The State Irrigation officials said that the government had no clue about the role of the newly-appointed officials from the Union Jal Shakti Ministry. They are also not sure about their administrative responsibilities in the management of the projects.

They apprehend that there could be a clash of interest regarding discharge of duties pertaining to maintenance of projects if policy decisions are taken by the engineers of the Jal Shakti Ministry.

The gazette notification, it may be recalled, gives delegation of extraordinary powers to the two Boards in the management of projects, including overseeing the ongoing projects and the release of water from these two rivers. "If the Boards take over the maintenance of projects, the role of the State Irrigation department will be confined to being a facilitator to the KRMB and GRMB in providing required information. The State Government then would have to take the permission of the Boards in the implementation of every single policy decision on irrigation issues.

Last week, Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao met Union Jal Shakti Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat in New Delhi and requested him not to implement the notification from October 14. He wanted the Centre to defer implementation till the objections on the board's powers raised by the State were addressed. According to an order, Chief Engineers MK Sinha and GK Agarwal from the Central Water Commission have been appointed to discharge the duties in GRMB (Godavari River management Board) and two more officials T K Sivarajan and Anupam have been appointed for the KRMB (Krishna River Management Board). They would directly report to the Chairman of the respective boards.