Even as the NDA government passed a bill to establish a permanent tribunal to adjudicate on inter-state disputes over sharing of river waters, the Telangana and Andhra Pradesh governments have decided to give a damn for the bill and have their own understanding on river water sharing.
Last week, the Lok Sabha passed the bill which seeks to make amendments to the Inter-State River Waters Disputes Act of 1956 that provides for setting up of a separate tribunal every time a dispute arises.
Once it becomes law, the amendment will ensure the transfer of all existing water disputes to the new tribunal. All five existing tribunals under the 1956 Act would cease to exist.
The Telugu states feel it is an attempt by the Centre to gain control over the states in the name of resolving water disputes.
Telangana chief minster K Chandrasekhar Rao and his Andhra counterpart Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy have decided to continue with their efforts to resolve inter-State issues in a cordial and friendly atmosphere.
Both of them will meet next week to take stock of the water storage levels in the common irrigation projects soon before they take a call on release of water from Srisailam reservoir to Nagarjuna Sagar Project.
The two Telugu States together have an ayacut of 21 lakh acres under the Nagarajuna Sagar Project to be fed at least for a single crop a year.
The farmers in the NSP ayacut are banking mainly on the heavy inflows to be received from Srisailam project.
Since it has hundreds of villages and towns in its command area to meet their drinking water needs, the need for release of water from Srisailam is increasingly being felt.