Telangana has reiterated one more time that there is no need for bringing its projects and their components other than Peddavagu in Khammam district under the administrative control of Godavari river management board (GRMB) as they are not common projects serving the needs of the two Telugu States but serve the needs of only Telangana.
Sixth meeting of the sub-committee of GRMB was held here on Monday to discuss and finalise the handing over notes of Medigadda Barrange and Kannepally pump house of Kaleshwaram project in Telangana and old Venkatanagaram pumping house of Andhra Pradesh.
On the agenda items of Telangana its member Sridhar Rao Deshpande, Officer on Special Duty to Chief Minister on Irrigation, said as decided at the 12th meeting of GRMB held on October 11 last year, Telangana had already submitted the details of common project Peddavagu and agreed for handing over its management to the river board. However, he reiterated, that there was no reason for bringing other projects into the board’s purview in Telangana.
He also pointed out that Telangana had already written to the river board and Ministry of Jal Shakti on removal of five projects including Kaleshwaram from Schedule-2 and shift a few other project components from Schedule-2 to 3. Since there was no response from either from GRMB or from MoJS there was no need to discuss the matter now.
Further, the Telangana member reiterated that the matter of projects’ site visit and preparation of handing over notes had to be taken up only after discussion and approval of the board meeting and the involvement of sub-committee members in the visit and notes preparation was also necessary. He also registered Telangana’s strong protest on the visit of projects by GRMB secretariat members and preparation of handing over notes without board’s permission.
Telangana has made it clear to Member Secretary of GRMB B.P. Pandey that it would not discuss on the one-sided notes prepared by the board secretariat without the knowledge and involvement of Telangana. The Member-Secretary was also requested to record the views/opinion of Telangana expressed in the fifth meeting of the sub-committee in the minutes of the sixth meeting as they were not recorded properly that time.
During the discussion on Venkatanagaram pumping house, AP member of the sub-committee Pulla Rao demanded that all projects and their components of Telangana be brought under the board’s purview. In response, Telangana member said the demand of AP was not justified since all the projects were taken up in combined AP and they serve needs of only Telangana and as per Clause IV of Godavari Award, States have freedom to divert their share of dependable water to un-served areas.
