Maharashtra joins hands with Karnataka in opposing Andhra review petition on Krishna river water sharing

@prashanthamine

Mumbai: Both Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and his Karnataka counterpart Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa on Tuesday agreed that both their state’s will jointly oppose the review petition filed by Andhra Pradesh asking for a review of the water allocation by the Krishna Water Disputes Tribunal (KWDT) following the creation of state of Telangana. Andhra Pradesh has sought reallocation of the water share.

The final KWDT award on November 29, 2013 by justice Brijesh Kumar had increased the water allocation to Andhra Pradesh and reduced it for Karnataka. The creation of new state of Telangana on June 2, 2014 has completely altered the equations not just for Maharashtra and Karnataka, but also for Andhra Pradesh.

Another reason that prompts the two Chief Ministers of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to join hands is that their adversaries are Y S Rajashekhar Reddy in Andhra Pradesh of YSR Congress and K Chandrashekhar Rao in Telangana. Karnataka is already locked in a bitter Kaveri river water sharing dispute with Tamil Nadu.

Besides this, in the aftermath of the recent flooding in both the neighbouring states and the stand-off over release of excess waters from Almatti dam in Karnataka that caused wide-spread damage in Western Maharashtra, both the Chief Ministers agreed to set up a Joint High Power committee for Flood Disaster Management. The committee will take decisions on regulating dam water storage in both the states. Both the decisions were taken at a high level meeting at Varsha, the official residence of Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis.

In November 2013, the KWDT second tribunal award had increased the water allocation to Andhra Pradesh by 4 TMC and reducing the share of Karnataka. In the draft award of December 31, 2010, Andhra Pradesh was allocated 1,001 TMC, Karnataka 911 TMC and Maharashtra 666 TMC of water out of the total 2,060 TMC of shareable water. The second KWDT which was agreed to be set up in 2004, began its work only on July 16, 2007. There were no meetings held after year 2000 following the KWDTs first award. A year later after the second award of the KWDT in 2013, Telangana came into existence in 2014.

The first tussle is in between Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka as the KWDT award has reduced the share of Karnataka and increased that of Andhra Pradesh. The second tussle is between Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. The Krishna river which originates in Mahabaleshwar in western Maharashtra has a river basin of 2.57 lakh and empties itself in the Bay of Bengal. The maximum stretch of the river basin of 1,300 Kms lies between Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, with 303 Kms in Maharashtra and 480 Kms in Karnataka. The first of the KWDT award headed by R S Bachawat was set up by the Center on April 10, 1969.