Revanth directs officials to present strong case in Supreme Court on Krishna water rights

HYDERABAD: Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy has directed the officials to present effective arguments and submit all the necessary evidence before the Supreme Court to secure Telangana’s rightful share in Krishna river waters.

As the case relating to Krishna river water disputes between Andhra Pradesh and Telangana is expected to come up for hearing in the apex court after November 18, the chief minister held a review with legal experts here on Tuesday.

Irrigation Minister N Uttam Kumar Reddy, Irrigation Adviser Adityanath Das, CMO Secretary Manik Raj, Irrigation department Secretary E Sridhar, Joint Secretary K Srinivas, Advocate General Sudarshan Reddy, senior Supreme Court advocate CS Vaidyanathan and senior irrigation officials attended the meeting.

The chief minister directed the engineers to expedite the works of the Dindi and Achampet lift irrigation schemes. He made it clear that water should be supplied to the Dindi and Achampet schemes from Edula as per the decision taken earlier.

Revanth also instructed the officials to ensure that there were no hurdles in transporting the required 0.6 tmcft water for the two projects from Narlapur to Edula.

He directed the officials to identify where tunnels and canals would be required, prepare a detailed project report (DPR) and take up the works accordingly.

The chief minister cautioned officials against taking hasty decisions on the additional one tmcft works under the Kaleshwaram project. He asked them to remain vigilant to ensure that the mistakes committed by the previous BRS government were not repeated.

Pointing out that the existing system was unable to transport even the present two tmcft water, the chief minister directed the officials to adopt a responsible approach towards the additional one tmcft works.

He directed officials to first review the progress of the cases pending before the Supreme Court and then take up land acquisition. 

He also instructed them to obtain all necessary clearances from the Central Water Commission (CWC) and prepare a comprehensive detailed project report (DPR).