Telangana: River Boards roll up sleeves

Hyderabad: GRMB and KRMB (Godavari and Krishna River Management Boards) cracked the whip on Telangana and Andhra Pradesh even before the gazette notification on the jurisdiction of the two boards had come into effect. The Boards have set 6-month deadline from now to the two Telugu States to seek all required clearances to the illegal projects, taken up by the two governments on Krishna and Godavari, from the Central agencies.

It may be mentioned here that the Union Jal Shakti in the gazette notification has declared 11 projects, including the Kaleshwaram project (additional 1 tmc ft), Sitarama (Rajiv Dummugudem) lift irrigation scheme and Tupakulagudem barrage, taken up on River Godavari by the Telangana Government, as illegal projects. On River Krishna, Palamuru Ranga Reddy and Dindi were among the 12 projects which have been listed as illegal projects.

The boards in the separate meetings with the state Irrigation officials enquired about the status of the ongoing illegal projects and questioned for continuing the works without clearances from the Central Water Commission, Union Environment and Forests department and other central agencies. The board officials warned the States to submit all the required clearances within six months. If the government did not fall in line, the officials said that the Boards would stop the works and seize the projects.

In the meeting, the GRMB has asked the two States to furnish the details of officials to oversee the functioning of all projects in a week or 10 days. Based on it, the board would prepare the job chart to discharge the duties by the state Irrigation officials. The two Boards also instructed the two States to make necessary arrangements to implement the gazette notification in the letter and spirit. The Boards have been given extraordinary powers for the maintenance of the projects and the management of the water resources in the two rivers.

The newly appointed KRMB Convenor RK Pillai asked the two State officials to submit the details of the contract works above Rs 1 crore taken up on the two rivers. The deployment of CISF (Central Industrial Security Force) forces at the project sites and the deposit of Rs 200 crore by each state to the functioning of the two boards was also discussed.

The officials said that they would soon visit Banakacharla head regulator to ascertain whether the regulator would come under the purview of the KRMB or not. The Telangana irrigation officials led by Engineer - in- Chief C Muralidhar demanded to bring the regulator under the jurisdiction of the KRMB.