Centre asks Telangana's DPRs on the Godavari River be cleared quickly

The Jal Shakti Ministry said on Tuesday that the Telangana government's Detailed Project Reports (DPRs) for six irrigation projects on the Godavari River would be cleared soon. Pankaj Kumar, the secretary of the Jal Shakti Ministry, gave this assurance during a video conference with the chief secretaries of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, Somesh Kumar and Sameer Sharma, on the implementation of the provisions of the gazette notification issued on July 15, 2021, taking control of the Krishna River Management Board (KRMB) and the Godavari River Management Board, respectively (GRMB). Pankaj informed that the Centre was actively pursuing the matter with the law department and that the matter would be referred to a tribunal as soon as it received an opinion from it. Pankaj also promised the Telangana government that they would investigate the concerns raised by the state government about AP's alleged illegal irrigation projects on the Krishna River. Telangana, according to Somesh Kumar, submitted six DPRs to the Central Water Commission (CWC) in September this year for the Sita Rama Lift Irrigation Scheme (LIS), Sammakka Sagar Project, Mukteshwar LIS, Chowtpally Hanumanth Reddy LIS, Modikuntavagu Project, and Channaka-Korata bar The CWC has yet to receive the DPRs. The jal shakti minister had requested chief minister K Chandrashekhar Rao to withdraw the case from the Supreme Court and consider referring the matter to a tribunal under section 3 of the Inter-State River Water Disputes (ISRWD) Act 1956, according to decisions made at the apex council meeting on October 6, 2020. Somesh Kumar, citing the Telangana government's withdrawal of its case from the Supreme Court, urged the central government to act quickly in this regard. Somesh Kumar also mentioned five Godavari basin projects - the Ramappa-Pakala link project, Kaleshwaram project additional 1 tmc per day, Kandakurthy LIS, Gudem LIS, and PV Narasimha Rao Kanthanapally barrage - that were incorrectly included in the GRMB's unapproved list of projects and asked the Union secretary to remove them from the list. Image Source