Chief Minister Revanth Reddy was silent over AP government’ proposed Polavaram – Banakacharla link project at NITI Aayog project or even during his meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi raising eyebrows among political circles in Telangana.
Though this proposal is coming from AP Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu in the name of making Rayalaseema fertile, many suspect it was a broader design of Narendra Modi government to divert Godavari waters for Karnataka and Tamil Nadu for its own political mileage.
Till now, the Center has been giving approvals only to projects based on clear water availability. The availability of water sources should reflect in the allocation of water by respective tribunals. That is scientific. But in the case of Banakacharla, Telangana irrigation experts are expressing their anger over the Center moving forward on the basis of projected surplus water that Chandrababu Naidu is formulating.
Hundreds of TMCs are entering the sea every year. Irrigation experts are questioning where is the scientific basis for the surplus water that Chandrababu is projecting in a tribunal-like manner that he will use 200 TMCs? They are also wonder that how the Center can accept it as a standard? At the same time, there is severe criticism that the Congress government in the state is playing the role of a spectator even though such a huge conspiracy is going on in the National Capital.
Only Telangana Engineer-in-Chief dashed a formal protest letter to the Water management authorities against this move. But at political level, Revanth Reddy government is said to be remaining as a mute spectator. BRS leaders are angry about why the Revanth Reddy government, which dried up Medigadda and reduced the use of Godavari water in Telangana, is not speaking out about the historical injustice being done?
River tribunals were formed to calculate the annual flow of water in the rivers flowing in the respective states and determine the availability of water in the respective rivers. There are about eight tribunals in the country. Five of these are currently in existence. Only after decades of scientific analysis and taking into account water calculations, the tribunals allocated water to the states in the river basin based on 75 percent dependability and 65 percent dependability.
As part of that, only after an agreement was reached taking into account the usage and needs of the basin states in the Godavari River, 1,486 TMC was allocated to the combined AP. The Bachawat Tribunal gave its approval to it. Until another tribunal is formed and another calculation is made, the details approved by Bachavat are the standard for all states including the Center.
But Telangana irrigation experts are alleging that Chandrababu Naidu comes to the fore without doing scientific calculations. They are alleging that after choosing the goal of gaining political benefits in Tamil Nadu, the BJP government at the Center brought the Godavari- Cauvery interlinking project to the fore for a few years.
Since the glaciers and river waters were being wasted due to melting snow and the rivers of the south were drying up due to the erratic monsoon, the process of interlinking of rivers was brought during the Vajpayee regime. But the Modi government, which is struggling for that, has put the connection from the north to the south on hold and has focused on the Godavari- Cauvery project.