Many prominent citizens in Vijayawada, who initiated a think tank `Alochana Parula Vedika’ have given a call to fight for the rights of the people of the state in the Krishna- Godavari river waters, that the Godavari- Banakacharla scheme should be abandoned, and that projects should be built for the people.
They asked for the connection of Polavaram (Godavari) – Somasila (Penna). Retired IPS officer AB Venkateswara Rao, retired engineer of the Irrigation Department Kambhampati Papa Rao, president of the Rythe Seva Sanstha Akkineni Bhavaniprasad, and irrigation sector analyst T. Lakshminarayana criticized that the Polavaram- Banakacharla project is against the interests of the state.
They lamented that this is being undertaken only to benefit contractors and politicians. They recalled that the Bachawat Tribunal and the subsequent Brijesh Kumar Tribunal in the united state had allocated 800 TMCs (811 including regenerated water) of Krishna net water to the united state, and before the state was bifurcated, 512 TMCs of this were being used for projects in Andhra Pradesh and 299 TMCs were being used for projects in Telangana.
They said that after the bifurcation of the state, the list containing the allocations by project was unanimously approved by the first Apex Council (Union Minister of Water Resources and two Chief Ministers). They also recalled that the then Chief Ministers Chandrababu Naidu and KCR signed the minutes.
However, they deplored that later KCR tried to distort it as a temporary agreement. They said that the central government has extended the deadline of the Brijesh Kumar Tribunal on the water dispute raised by Telangana for political reasons, and that it is now trying to resolve the dispute between the two states.
They said that as per the tribunal’s award on Godavari waters, 1480 TMC has been allocated to the united Andhra Pradesh, and there is no clear division between the two states in the use of these, therefore, this issue that has arisen between Andhra and Telangana also needs to be resolved permanently.