నిరంతర ఘోష ఫై ఉద్యమిస్తున్న ఉద్వేగ ఉపద్రవాలు..........
Thursday, April 29, 2010
Wednesday, April 28, 2010
Tuesday, April 27, 2010
TELANGANA dream frm 1956..........
n 1952, a young intermediate student from Osmania University walked in with a bunch of friends to tell the 1st States Reorganisation Commission that Telangana should not be merged with Andhra into a grand state. And why. He was all of 18 then.
Tuesday will mark a poignant moment for Jayashankar when he walks into North Block to plead why Telangana region should be separated from Andhra Pradesh, an argument which has endured over six decades.
If there is a thread joining Telangana's continuing appeal over 62 years and four generations, Jayashankar may be it. The man, however, underplays his role in the struggle for statehood. "I have just sensitized the people of Telangana through research and academic studies, and by educating them on injustice," the statehood ideologue said.
It will be yesterday once more when the former vice-chancellor of Kakatiya University, along with TRS boss K Chandrasekhara Rao, makes a forceful plea for division of AP at the all-party meeting called by Centre on Tuesday. "Telangana is bound to come. I am optimistic," the academic-turned-activist told TOI.
His pursuit of one dream in a lifetime may be a record of sorts. Telangana has erupted at regular intervals and Jayashankar has been in the forefront always. He was a teenaged activist when he met the first SRC.
Then, in 1962, he was part of a campaign which rocked the region. As a lecturer, in 1968, he participated in the revived agitation.
The big hope came when he worked with Channa Reddy in 1971 in what is remembered as the most successful Telangana upsurge since 1947. It again resulted in disappointment till the retired professor of economics came across a rebellious TDP leader to forge a new statehood platform — TRS.
"I never joined a party," he said, adding, "My range is from RSS to TRS. Anyone who stands for Telangana can be done business with." This time, however, the 76-year-old says Telangana is round the corner. He has not given up hope.
Sources: Times of India
Tuesday will mark a poignant moment for Jayashankar when he walks into North Block to plead why Telangana region should be separated from Andhra Pradesh, an argument which has endured over six decades.
If there is a thread joining Telangana's continuing appeal over 62 years and four generations, Jayashankar may be it. The man, however, underplays his role in the struggle for statehood. "I have just sensitized the people of Telangana through research and academic studies, and by educating them on injustice," the statehood ideologue said.
It will be yesterday once more when the former vice-chancellor of Kakatiya University, along with TRS boss K Chandrasekhara Rao, makes a forceful plea for division of AP at the all-party meeting called by Centre on Tuesday. "Telangana is bound to come. I am optimistic," the academic-turned-activist told TOI.
His pursuit of one dream in a lifetime may be a record of sorts. Telangana has erupted at regular intervals and Jayashankar has been in the forefront always. He was a teenaged activist when he met the first SRC.
Then, in 1962, he was part of a campaign which rocked the region. As a lecturer, in 1968, he participated in the revived agitation.
The big hope came when he worked with Channa Reddy in 1971 in what is remembered as the most successful Telangana upsurge since 1947. It again resulted in disappointment till the retired professor of economics came across a rebellious TDP leader to forge a new statehood platform — TRS.
"I never joined a party," he said, adding, "My range is from RSS to TRS. Anyone who stands for Telangana can be done business with." This time, however, the 76-year-old says Telangana is round the corner. He has not given up hope.
Sources: Times of India
TELANGANA song.....
పోరు చరిత
జై తెలంగాణాని ఉయ్యాలొ,
బతుకు పోరుజెయ్య ఉయ్యల!
మానీళ్ళు మాకోసం ఉయ్యాలొ,
మాపోరుసాగంగ ఉయ్యాల!
యాభయ్యేండ్లసంది ఉయ్యాలొ,
అణుచుకుంటిమి బాధ ఉయ్యాలొ!
మా జాగ మాకేనని ఉయ్యాలొ,
జంగు సైరనూదినాము ఉయ్యాల!
ఇన్నేండ్ల తండ్లాట ఉయ్యాలొ,
తెలంగాణ రావలే ఉయ్యాల!
నినదించి జనమంత ఉయ్యాలొ,
నిరహర దీక్షలు ఉయ్యాల!
గొంతులో పొలికేకలు ఉయ్యాలొ.
యుద్ద నాదములాయే ఉయ్యాల!
ఆత్మా గౌరవము ఉయ్యాలొ,
మేముగోరినాము ఉయ్యాల!
న్యాయపోరాటము ఉయ్యాలొ,
నిప్పుల్ల మండింది ఉయ్యాల!
కాసోజు శ్రీకాంతు ఉయ్యాలొ,
మండేటి సూర్యుడు ఉయ్యాల!
నిలువెల్లా మంటల్ల ఉయ్యాలొ,
నినాదమిడవలే ఉయ్యాల!
బలిదానలెన్నున ఉయ్యాలొ,
బతుకులు మారలె ఉయ్యాల!
మాకొలువు మాకంటే ఉయ్యాలొ,
మమ్ముల కొట్టిరి ఉయ్యాల!
యూనివర్సిటిలల్ల ఉయ్యాలొ,
ఉద్యమించే బిడ్డలు ఉయ్యాల!
ఉద్యమాల సదువులు ఉయ్యాలొ,
ఉగ్గుపాల బట్టె ఉయ్యాల!
ప్రశ్నించే దిక్కులు ఉయ్యాలొ,
గర్జించే సింహాలు ఉయ్యాల!
హక్కులు కోరితె ఉయ్యాలొ,
మక్కలిరగతన్నె ఉయ్యాల!
కొవ్వొత్తి బట్టిన ఉయ్యాలొ,
కేసులు బెట్టిరి ఉయ్యాల!
లాఠీ చార్జిలల్ల ఉయ్యాలొ,
నెత్తుర్లు పారేను ఉయ్యాల!
చిందిన నెత్తురు ఉయ్యాలొ,
పారేను పల్లెల్లొ ఉయ్యాల!
దిక్కులన్నికూడి ఉయ్యాలొ,
ఉక్కుపిడికిలై లేచె ఉయ్యాల!
చినుకులన్నీ కూడి ఉయ్యాలొ,
తుఫాను పుట్టింది ఉయ్యాల!
చిన్నోల్ల పెద్దోల్ల ఉయ్యాలొ,
చేతులన్నీ కలిసె ఉయ్యాల!
పొడిసేటి పొద్దుల్లొ ఉయ్యాలొ,
పొరుబాటన సాగె ఉయ్యాల!
బువ్వబందులు చేసి ఉయ్యాలొ,
భూమికొసం పోరె ఉయ్యాల!
బందులు చేసిరి ఉయ్యాలొ,
బలిదానలిచ్చిరి ఉయ్యాల!
డప్పుల దరువుల్ల ఉయ్యాలొ,
గుండెల సప్పుల్లు ఉయ్యాల!
ఇందరి పొలికేక ఉయ్యాలొ,
ఢిల్లీని కదిలించె ఉయ్యాల!
అమ్మగారీ దూత ఉయ్యాలొ,
మాటిచ్చి పొయ్యిండు ఉయ్యాల!
ఇన్నేండ్ల త్యాగాలు ఉయ్యాలొ,
కండ్లముంగట మెదిలె ఉయ్యాల!
గడప గడపలోన ఉయ్యాలొ,
గంపెడు ఆశలు ఉయ్యాల!
కొత్తబతుకు మీద ఉయ్యాలొ,
కలలెన్నో కంటెమి ఉయ్యాల!
ఒక్కరోజూ కాలే ఉయ్యాలొ,
కుక్కలెంటావడ్డై ఉయ్యాల!
దోచుకో దొర్కక ఉయ్యాలొ,
దొంగలేకమయ్యిరి ఉయ్యాల!
తెలుగోళ్ళు ఒకటని ఉయ్యాలొ,
కల్లబొల్లికతలల్లే ఉయ్యాల!
నువ్వూ నేను అంతా ఉయ్యాలొ,
అన్నదమ్ములమంట ఉయ్యాల!
ఒక్కవ్వ బిడ్డలైతే ఉయ్యాలొ,
ఒక్కతీరు లేమేంది? ఉయ్యాల!
ప్రాజెక్టులీడైన ఉయ్యాలొ,
పారేటి నెల్లాడ ఉయ్యాల!
క్రిష్ణమ్మ నీల్లుంటె ఉయ్యాలొ,
కన్నీళ్ళు మిగిలేనా? ఉయ్యాల!
గోదారి మాకుంటె ఉయ్యాలొ,
గొడ్లెందుకమ్ముదుం ఉయ్యాల!
కరువుల కోరల్ల ఉయ్యాలొ,
దూప ఆరని నేలలు ఉయ్యాల!
బీడూ జాగాలీడ ఉయ్యాలొ,
మూడు పంటలాడ ఉయ్యాల!
ఎండిన చేలల్ల ఉయ్యాలొ,
తుమ్మలు మొల్శెను ఉయ్యాల!
తాగునీల్లు లేక ఉయ్యాలొ,
ఫ్లోరోసిస్ రోగము ఉయ్యాల!
అన్నదమ్ములమైతె ఉయ్యాలొ,
ఒక్కోలే లేమేంది? ఉయ్యాల!
బొగ్గుబాయిల నేను ఉయ్యాలొ,
బెంజికారుల నువ్వు ఉయ్యాల!
దుబాయి వలసలు ఉయ్యాలొ,
ఎన్నెన్ని తిప్పలు! ఉయ్యాల!
మా కొలువుల్ల నువ్వు ఉయ్యాలొ,
కులికేటి దొంగవు ఉయ్యాల!
ఒకనెంట ఒకడచ్చి ఉయ్యాలొ,
ఒదిగినారిక్కడే ఉయ్యాల!
బతుక వలుస మాది ఉయ్యాలొ,
వలసొచ్చి నువు బలిసె ఉయ్యాల!
మాయలు మంత్రాలు ఉయ్యాలొ,
రియలేస్టేటు దందాలు ఉయ్యాల!
ఏకులోలెవచ్చి ఉయ్యాలొ,
మేకులై కూసుండే ఉయ్యాల!
గులాము నేనైతె ఉయ్యాలొ,
దొరబాబు నువ్వైతివి ఉయ్యాల!
నా భాష,యాసలు ఉయ్యాలొ,
ఎగతాళి నీకాయే ఉయ్యాల!
అక్కవే నువ్వైతే ఉయ్యాలొ,
నక్కబుద్ధులేల ఉయ్యాల!
బలిదానాలీడ ఉయ్యాలొ,
బలుపు పోరులాడ ఉయ్యాల!
లాఠిదెబ్బలీడ ఉయ్యాలొ,
లాబీయింగు లాడ! ఉయ్యాల!
నువ్వు-నేను ఇద్దరు ఉయ్యాలొ,
ఖచ్చితంగా వేరు ఉయ్యాల!
తూటాలు తిన్నోన్ని ఉయ్యాలొ,
తెలంగాణోన్ని నేను ఉయ్యాల!
ఓట్ల బిచ్చపోడు ఉయ్యాలొ,
మా నోట్ల మన్నేశే ఉయ్యాల!
పాణాలు పోతున్న ఉయ్యాలొ,
పదవీకె అతికీరి ఉయ్యాల!
మంటల్ల మండిన ఉయ్యాలొ,
మాటముచ్చటలేదు ఉయ్యాల!
ప్రజాబంధువులు ఉయ్యాలొ,
రాబందులనిపించే ఉయ్యాల!
నాలుక్కొట్లామంది ఉయ్యాలొ,
నక్షలైట్లు అనె ఉయ్యాల!
నాదు స్వతంత్ర్యపోరాతం ఉయ్యాలొ,
నక్షలైట్లె చెశిన్ల? ఉయ్యాల!
మా బతుకు మాకంటె ఉయ్యాలొ,
తప్పెందుకయ్యింది? ఉయ్యాల!
కొలిమంటుకున్నంక ఉయ్యాలొ,
కమిటీలు యెశిన్లు ఉయ్యాల!
కమిటీల పేరున ఉయ్యాలొ,
కాలరాశె చూపు ఉయ్యాల!
అరచేతి అడ్డుతో ఉయ్యాలొ,
సూరీడు ఆగునా? ఉయ్యాల!
ఒక్కొక్క కణమెల్లా ఉయ్యాలొ,
రణభేరి మ్రోగిస్తం ఉయ్యాల!
తల్లడిల్లిన తల్లి ఉయ్యాలొ,
కన్నీళ్ళు తుడుస్తం ఉయ్యాల!
నిలువెల్ల మాకండ్ల ఉయ్యాలొ,
తెలంగాణ సూస్కుంటం ఉయ్యాల…..
జై తెలంగాణ! జై జై తెలంగాణ!!
-అల్లం క్రిష్ణ వంశీ
HYDERABAD...AMERICANS said safest place to live in
Hyderabad, Jan. 6: The US government advisory against travel to Hyderabad appears to have had little impact on a group of American students from Kansas State University.
Nineteen students of the university arrived in Hyderabad on Monday and made a dash to the epicentre of the Telangana agitation, the Osmania University campus. There they spent a night, interacted with students on the arts lawns yesterday, and expressed solidarity. They left last evening.
“I feel safer at the university as it has more security,” one of the American students said.
The group is on a four-day tour of Andhra Pradesh as part of an international students’ exchange programme, and has been visiting select state universities. They are being led by faculty member Barry Michie.
“They went around Hyderabad and also the (Osmania) campus and met students,” said T. Vijay Kumar, joint director of Osmania’s centre for international programmes.
The campus lawns, however, were rather quiet and thinly populated since the students have taken a few days off with talks now being held in Delhi. The Osmania students thanked the visitors for their interest in their agitation.
“We explained how the Telangana region had remained backward for the past five decades because of political indifference, and expressed our resolve to grow independently and separately,” said Ajay, a member of the Joint Action Committee.
BJP FOR TELANGANA FOREVER...SHUSMA SWARAJ
Hyderabad, Jan 23: Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Sushma Swaraj Saturday said the party would continue to fight till a separate Telangana state is created and targetted both the ruling Congress and Telugu Desam Party in Andhra Pradesh for their "double standards" on the issue.
Addressing a public meeting organised by the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), the Leader of opposition in Lok Sabha asserted that Telangana state would become a reality.
Claiming that the BJP had taken a clear stand on Telangana, she alleged that the Congress and main oppoisition TDP were adopting double standards on the issue. "The Telangana leaders of Congress and TDP are raising slogans of Jai Telangana while their counterparts in Andhra region are demanding a unified Andhra," she said.
Stating that students had taken the Telangana movement in their hands, she remarked that "when students take a movement in their hands even god can't stop it'. She however advised students not to resort to violence.
Swaraj appealed to students and youth not to commit suicide for Telangana. "You should fight and live for Telangana to see its formation, development and prosperity," she said.
"How many more people will have to die for Telangana state to be formed," she asked and alleged that the Congress had repeatedly betrayed the people of the region.
Recalling that Telangana was merged with Andhra in 1956 despite reservations by the first states reorganisation commission, she pointed out that then prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru had stated that the merger was only a trial and people of Telangana can demand Telangana state whenever they want.
Swaraj urged Congress president Sonia Gandhi to fulfill the promise made by Nehru by carving out Telangana state.
The ABVP meeting passed a resolution demanding the central government move a bill in the parliament for formation of Telangana state. It also asked all MPs and state legislators from the region to submit their resignations to mount pressure on the centre.
Monday, April 26, 2010
Thursday, April 22, 2010
some facts....
Research on water resources
Sanjay Gupta Water Resource of Andhra Pradesh
Data on AP Projects
Human Development Report-AP 2007
Click
Human Development Report-AP 2007
ANDHRA/RAYALA SEEMA BUSINESS NUMBERS...
http://ourtelangana.com/content/andhrarayala-seema-business-numbersshocking-news
65%of Industries in Telangana are owned by Andhra but a Telangana - person tried to start industry in West Godavari was harassed and tormentedANDHRA/RAYALA SEEMA BUSINESS NUMBERS...
http://ourtelangana.com/contenShamsabad to Vijayawada .. what about Telangana.??
just wondered after read the news http://eenadu.net/story.asp?qry1=12&reccount=33eenadu.net/story.asp RTC is going to start volve bus from shamsabad to Vijaywada. very appreciable efforts from RTC no doubt they thinking for the peoples intreste since the air port is very far from the city. but how they ignore the nizambad, karimnagar, adilabad dist people who are coming from gulf every day in different flights to hyderbad, they are also facing lots of problems for trasporation from shamsabad to thier destination, specailly they are from the poor caterogies its much required than the vijayawada people.
is RTC also thinking like TGV that all telanganaite are crorepathis and going to gulf to earn millions and they dont need the bus services ? if RTC start Express or Red bus also instead of volve .. telangana people will be happy, but it is not digestable that in every field they are facing the partiality from SA groups and authorities ....
Every year, 50000 people from Telangana r going to Gulf for employment and 35000 are in Jails And 400 deaths...is RTC also thinking like TGV that all telanganaite are crorepathis and going to gulf to earn millions and they dont need the bus services ? if RTC start Express or Red bus also instead of volve .. telangana people will be happy, but it is not digestable that in every field they are facing the partiality from SA groups and authorities ....
White Ration Cards
Top5 in Number (% wise)
East Godavari - 7.6
Guntur - 6.4
West Godavari - 6.2
Krishna - 5.2
vishakapatanam -5.2
Lowest -
Hyderabad - 2.1
Nizamabad - 2.5
Khammam - 3.2
Adilabad - 3.3
The way people are questioning MLAs in PRAJAPATHAM
is an instance for the growing demand of separate TELANGANA
Kothagudem thermal station sabotaged for repair contracts to andra contractors in 1978 - Sundar Ramaiah commission - 1979
% of muslims in Govt Employees before 1950 is 40% . Now it's only 2.5%. still Shabbir Ali Says "Muslims are highly developed in Cong regime"
600 villages & 300000 people are affected by excess Fluoride in the Underground Water and 10000 people are totaly Crippled in Nalgonda..
deatils-
www.cli.gs/fluoride
East Godavari - 7.6
Guntur - 6.4
West Godavari - 6.2
Krishna - 5.2
vishakapatanam -5.2
Lowest -
Hyderabad - 2.1
Nizamabad - 2.5
Khammam - 3.2
Adilabad - 3.3
The way people are questioning MLAs in PRAJAPATHAM
is an instance for the growing demand of separate TELANGANAKothagudem thermal station sabotaged for repair contracts to andra contractors in 1978 - Sundar Ramaiah commission - 1979
% of muslims in Govt Employees before 1950 is 40% . Now it's only 2.5%. still Shabbir Ali Says "Muslims are highly developed in Cong regime"
600 villages & 300000 people are affected by excess Fluoride in the Underground Water and 10000 people are totaly Crippled in Nalgonda..
deatils-
www.cli.gs/fluoride
From past 50years AP got nearly 40 major projects in 37 Went to Seemandhra region..!!
is it Justifiable to select Kammam dist Trible women for testing survical cancer vaccine by Bill and Milindagate foundation? r they animals..?
Guntur gets canal water for 11lakh Acr but Government says only gets for 3lakh acrs.. whois govt trying to fool?
PRANAHITHA surveyed in 1970..interstate Agreement arrived at in 1978...work not yet started..even after 32years.....
In Nizams rule Azam jahi Mills provided livelihood to abt 15000pple..
in WGL but closed down..& mills lands sold as real estate in YSR rule...
Saturday, April 17, 2010
DEAR TELANGANITES...plz forward this information on SMS...
- Total loss of water share of Telangana merging with Andhra is 1125 TMC. 1 TMC
serves 10000 acres, i.e. total cultivation land Telangana lost is 11, 25,000 acres.
• 7 Telangana, 3 Andhra, 1 Rayalaseema are declared backward districts.
• 65% of Industries in Telangana are owned by Andhra. One Telangana person (close
relative of Sri Jaipal Reddy) tried to start industry in Andhra, he was tormented so
much that he gave it up.
• All Telangana region CM's combined tenure is hardly 6 years.
• AP got nearly 40 major projects in which 37 went to Seemandhra region
• Pothireddypadu regulator was originally created for drinking water to Chennai with 5
TMC. Gradually 5 projects were ‘piggy backed’ & augmented to canal. In the name
of Chennai drinking water, Seemandhra wanted to take entire Srisailam water
• Veligonda project is being constructed on war footing basis. This will drain 60 TMC of
water from Srisailam. This project is not allotted (water share by tribunal) and do not
have clearance till now.
• Handrineeva Sujala Sravanthi, not allotted not cleared project is going on war footing
• SLBC despite of all recommendations, clearances and permissions never started.
• Manuguru thermal power station proposed to be in Telangana was lobbied to be
shifted to Vijayawada, transporting coal from singareni.
• Dummugudem Hydal power station remained a promise on paper.
• Icchampalli power (975 MW) project never started.
• 1953 Andhra Pradesh the area irrigated under Tanks in the Telangana 11 lakh acres.
Now it is hardly 6.5 lakh acres.
• Education in crores Andhra 1308.56, Rayalaseema 382.87, Telangana 163.39
• Schools - Andhra 26800, Rayalaseema 13000, Telangana 17954
• Hospitals - Andhra (9 dist) 666, Rayalaseema (4 dist) 303, Telangana (10 dist) 270
• Total Govt employees- Seemandhra 9 lakhs, Telangana (10 dist) 3 lakhs
• Industries Andhra 6100, Rayalaseema 773, Telangana 1250
• Power Utilization Andhra 54%, Rayalaseema 23%, Telangana 23%
Nagarjuna Sagar project Submerged land Cultivation land
Andhra 0 % 20 lakh acres
Telangana 100% 4.5 lakh acres
• Polavaram project is submerging 250 small villages in Telangana, displacing 5 lakh
tribals is going to provide lakhs of acres cultivation land to Andhra.
• Grant-in-aid Private Degree colleges Andhra 96, Rayalaseema 32, Telangana 30
• Rayalaseema (4 dist) 3 Universities, Telangana (10 dist) 2 Universities
• If 100 colleges should logically have a University, Telangana should have 8.
• Rayalaseema (4 dist) has 4 medical, Telangana (10 dist) has 3 medical colleges
• Govt Aided Junior college grants in Cr. Andhra 37, Rayalaseema 20, Telangana 15
• Degree college allocation in crores Andhra 142, Rayalaseema 20, Telangana 15
• Of 130 posts of heads of departments, only 7 or 8 are held by Telanganites
• Sales Tax (2001- 2002) – Andhra 21%, Rayalaseema 5%, Telangana 74%
• Excise (2001-2002) – Andhra 24%, Rayalaseema 10%, Telangana 66%
• APPSC board members so far, Andhra 8, Rayalaseema 6, Telangana 2
• Telanganites are 23% in all industries in Telangana area, 0% in Seemandhra.
• All housing board colonies in capital city – 93% people are from Seemandhra.
• Govt Libraries – Andhra 630, Rayalaseema 243, Telangana 450
• In 70’s – Jublee hills lands were purchased at Rs 105 per acre, 1400 acres.
Telanganites were thrown out, housing society did not have a single Telanganite.
• Panchayat Raj divisions – Andhra 883, Rayalaseema 342, Telangana 295
• Most backward district in AP is Mahabubnagar, granted 4% white cards. Most
developed dist in AP is West Godavari dist was given 7% white cards.
• 82% of farmers are depend on private loans in Telangana
• There was no single drop of water in Palanadu 350yrs ago, it was like a desert.
Now, entire Telangana canal irrigation land is less than Guntur dist alone.
• Hyd state had Rs 60 crores of surplus budget. Andhra state had only 1 Crore in hand
given by Madras govt, and Shri Raj Gopalachari said ‘Get lost from here’
• Dr.B.R.Ambedkar suggested Hyderabad second capitol of India. He said Hyderabad
can be compared to Delhi.
• Government buys sugar cane (per quintal) in Andhra Rs 1200, Telangana Rs 890.
Andhra lands are canal cultivated, Telangana depend on bore wells.
• 150 forts are about to ruin in the Telangana which were built by various dynasties.
• Hyd Central University is filled with Andhraits every Central University in India has
60% reserved for local region.
• Pranahita, there is no staff, no funding, Andhra rulers say it will be done in 4 yrs
• There are never any difficulties in construction of irrigation projects in Andhra.
But there are always irregularities, corruption, delays in Telangana projects
• Mahabubnagar 35 lakhs population, migration 14 lakhs, 350km of Krishna
stretch, there is no drinking water or irrigation water
• AP dairy buys milk from farmers from @ Andhra Rs 24.30, Telangana Rs 22.30
• 450 tribal villages, millions of tons of limestone, rich minerals, lot of natural
Biodiversity will wash away with if Polavaram project is built
• Telangana is bigger than 24 states in India, and will be bigger than 160 countries
• Revenue – Expenditure Seemandhra 38.5% - 49%, Telangana 61.5% - 51%
• Jallianwala bagh - General Dyer year 1919 - 379 shot dead. Telangana - Kasu
Brahmananda Reddy year 1969 - 370 students shot dead.
• WHO declared flourosis affected Nalgonda is moving towards No Man Zone.
• Nizam formulated mulki rules in 1919, a person to get job, they must be in
Telangana for 15yrs,but now Andhra rulers reduced the period to 4yrs
• 1956-68 Seemandhrites got 28000 jobs in Telangana by bogus Mulki certificates
1975-85 they got 58000 by violating presidential order.
• In 1969 students/employees agitated against 28000 jobs - 370 were killed
• In 1972, Andhra managed to cancel supreme court judgment, then 6 point formula
was introduced. As per this formula Telangana split into zone 5, zone 6.
• Presidential order - Telangana should get 80% dist posts, 70% zonal posts, 60%
Gazetted posts. Remaining shall be open to others – what’s happening now ?
• In 1985, 610 GO issued to transfer of 58000 employs from Telangana, but this GO
is never implemented. That too 610 GO is for 102 our ot 250 departments only.
• In 2001, Chandra Babu Naidu appointed Girglani Commission. Report out in 2004,
that 2 lakh Seemandhra employs are working in Telangana.
• 23% Singareni coal is used in Telangana. 77% is being drained out to other places.
• Funds per Student (Rs) - SV University 37500- Andhra University 35500 – SK
University 25000 - Nagarjuna University 22700 - OU 17400 – KU 14000.
• Cultivation land (Lakh Acres) Before 1956 - Andhra 30.65, Telangana 18.20. 2004 -
Andhra 69.27, Telangana 18.00
• Kothagudem thermal station sabotaged for repair contracts to Andhra contractors in
1978 (Sundar Ramaiah commission – 1979)
• All APSEB scams targeted towards Telangana power supply and distribution, never
to Seemandhra. Officials found guilty by Vimal Lal commission.
• Technically it is possible to develop water grid to benefit Telangana & Seemandhra.
It would match in comparison with Mississippi river water system (USA), Three
Gorges river system (China), Nile river (Aswan dam) Africa and Rhine river system
Europe. Similar models were conceived by intellectuals but are trashed by Andhra
rulers and pseudo intellectuals because they will benefit Telangana.
• 1969 - after Jai Telangana movement 'All Party Accord' was formulated, scrapped
within 6 months. Than 8-point formula, 5-point formula were announced. Then
supreme court upheld Mulki rules. Andhrites could not digest it, launched Jai Andhra
movement. Central govt yielded as usual to tactics, then 6-point formula came. Even
this is being violated royally many times, robbing Telangana its rightfulness.
• Nagarjuna Sagar initially meant to benefit Andhra and Telangana. Later on modified
in such a way that 75% of the benefit went to Andhra reducing the share of
Telangana region to just 25%. Andhra settlers own 50% of these 25% utilization
lands.
• Singur project was designed to meet the irrigation needs of Medak Nizamabad. But it
is now solely used for meeting the requirements of capital city.
• Jurala Project which is the first project on river Krishna meant for Telangana is the
smallest of all the projects built on this river. Tribunal allocated just 17.5 TMC water
for this project, but Andhra rulers reduced its storage capacity to 60% ft. The actual
utilization so far has not been more than 10%
• Rajolibanda Diversion Scheme, was for 87500 acres in Mahabubnagar. Tribunal
allocated 15.90 TMC of water for this project. This water has to pass through a canal
in Raichur district of Karnataka State. Rayalaseema thugs blasted the gates with
bombs and diverted water. Since then Govt never even tried to reconstruct the gates.
• Devadula Project, provides water for 5 lakh acres, was promised to be finished in 5
yrs in 2001, yet to begin work. The funniest fact is, Sriram Sagar is yet to be
completed for last 40 yrs which provides water for just 4 lakh acres.
• Two major projects proposed on Godavari - Ichampally (Telangana) & Polavaram
(Andhra). Irrigation potential of Polavaram would be 7 times more than Icchampalli.
• Andhra lands have canal irrigation i.e. with tax payer’s money. It costs Rs 200 – 300
water charges/yr. Telangana lands depend on bore wells, entire cost is on the
farmer. Digging, power, bore well, motor, pipes.
• Nearly 500 farmers and uncounted number of weavers committed suicide during
2000-2009.
• Technological University was actually started in Warangal but was shifted to Hyd.
Open University started in Nalgonda district but was later shifted Hyd. The same
state level universities University of Health Sciences, Mahila University and the
University of Dravidian Languages were allowed to stay in Seemandhra - not moved
to Capital city.
• Twelve milk chilling plants established by the erstwhile Telangana Committee in
Telangana have been abruptly closed down showing lack of funds as a reason.
• Ramagundam is in heart of coal belt. Fertilizer plant is closed showing poor quality of
coal as reason. NTPC is running with same coal, VTPS is running with same coal.
Subsequently, fertilizer plants are started in Andhra.
• Based on the proportionality at least 40% of jobs, i.e. 6 lakhs, should have gone to
Telangana. But the total number of jobs now occupied by them is less than 3 lakhs.
• 1972, PV Narasimha Rao tried to implement the verdict of Supreme Court validating
the Mulki Rules. Seemandhra’s were outrageous reaction, he lost his Chief
Ministership.
• If it is assumed that the leaders of a region’s CM can development that region, then
why do the people of Rayalaseema complain of backwardness ?
• Daily wage workers in industries in Lakhs – Seemandhra 3.86, Telangana 0.81
• Palamoor : Andhra media never highlighted migration of 15 out of 24 lakh population.
• At merger, Andhra persuaded Telangana with many safeguards against exploitation.
1955 they passed a Unanimous Resolution in Andhra Assembly. Safeguards were
included in Gentlemen’s Agreement (1956). All are put to trash after the agreement.
• Telangana should get 42% jobs in the Secretariat, but only 9% are working now.
How can our MLAs, MLCs can get work done if 91% do not help ?
• Metro Rail designed dilapidating 5000 shops, 2500 houses, 147 schools, 120
hospitals, 60 Temples/Masjid/Churches. All shops and complexes contracts
throughout Metro rail route are with Seemandhra thugs.
• 1947 India’s Independence. 1948 Police action on Nizam. Hyd state existed for 7 yrs.
Telangana merged in1956. Telangana has nothing to do with Potti Sriramulu.
• Telangana Sayudha Poratam was against Nizam. 4000 people died - inspired all
subsequent land movements in West Bengal, Kerala and Tripura and paved way for
formation of Communist govt. This is never acknowledged by Seemandhra rulers so
far.
• Despite 69% Krishna, 79% Godavari flows through Telangana, irrigation cost is
Rs.1500/acre. 13% of Krishna, 21% Godavari flows through Andhra Rs.150/acre.
• Per capita income of Madhya Pradesh: Rs 18,051. Chattisgarh formed in 2000. Per
capita income of Chhattisgarh in 2008-09 - Rs. 29,621.
• Recently formed smaller states are catching up with Haryana 71%, Himachal is 81%
- Uttarakhand is 75% Jharkhand 58% Chhattisgarh 63%.
• Infant mortality UP 67%, Uttarakhand 44%.
• Yr 2008 Growth rate (%) Target- Achieved MP 7 - 4.3, UP 7.6 - 4.6, Bihar 6.2- 4.7 &
Chhattisgarh 6.1 - 9.2, Jharkhand 6.9 - 11.1, Uttaranchal 6.8 - 8.8
• 1956 to date, the additional irrigation potential created in Telangana is only 5%
• There are 10,000+ Industrial units in Telangana, 1200 are owned by Telanganites,
6500 are owned by Seemandhra, rest are by outsiders.
• Proportionally Telangana should be given about 43% in budget allocation, since 53 it
never exceeded 30%. Yet Telangana contributes 42% of revenue.
• In Andhra region every year two crops are cultivated because of water availability, in
Telangana a single crop will be cultivated with great difficulty.
• ITI’s Telangana 26, Andhra 54. Polytechnics Telangana 20, Andhra 70.
• Forbes says, the richest man to ever walk on the face of this planet was Nizam
• Second largest Airways at the time of Independence was Deccan Airways run by
Nizam with 76% stake in it.
• Hyd - demographic expansion can never be considered as a development. It is
natural growth. It is like a girl who is 10 yrs now will attain 15yrs of age after 5 yrs –
can we call it development ?
TRS -SKC...abt IRRIGATION
IRRIGATION
One of the major grievances of the people of Telangana has, all along been, and continues to be, the raw deal meted out to the region regarding the allocation and utilization of river waters. It is, however, not an unexpected development. It has happened as was feared at the time of merging Telangana with Andhra. The States Reorganization Commission also noted this fact by observing,
When plans for future development are taken into account, Telangana fears that the claims of this area may not receive adequate consideration in Vishalandhra. The Nandikonda and Kushtapuram (Godavari) projects are, for example, among the most important which Telangana or country as a whole has undertaken. Irrigation in the coastal deltas of these two great rivers is, however, also being planned. Telangana, therefore, does not wish to lose its present independent rights in relation to the utilization of the waters of the Krishna and the Godavari.
(SRC Report: Para 377)
Inspite of all such warning signals from the SRC and the resistance of the people, the Telangana region was forcibly merged with the Andhra State, with an assurance of justice and fair play. But, as feared, Telangana became a victim of broken promises. On the irrigation front, several major and medium irrigation projects planned by the then Government of Hyderabad were either abandoned or mutilated or kept in unending abeyance. And the consequence is the present scenario. It was aptly summarized by the Krishna Water Disputes Tribunal (KWDT), popularly known as Bachawat Tribunal, constituted by the Government of India in early 1970s for allocation of Krishna Waters between the riparian states of Maharashtra, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh. The Tribunal observed:
The area (Telangana) which we are considering for irrigation formed part of Hyderabad State, and had there been no division of that State there were better chances for the residents of this area to get irrigation facilities in Mahabubnagar District. We are of the opinion that this area should not be deprived of the benefit of irrigation on account of the reorganization of States.
(KWDT Report:Page178)
What more evidence is needed for the damage done to the Telangana region in the field of irrigation because of its merger with Andhra?
More Details can be seen hereunder:
1) Projects Abandoned:
Several Projects contemplated by the erstwhile Government of Hyderabad, some of which were under execution, aimed at irrigating several lakhs of acres were abandoned. They are;
• Tungabhadra (LBC) Extension;
• Bheema Project;
• Upper Krishna (RBC Extension);
• Godavari Multipurpose Project;
• Inchampally Project;
• Devanur Project.
2) Projects Truncated and Mutilated:
• SRSP: Survey made in 1959. Foundation laid in 1963 by Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru. Even after fifty years, the progress is limping and the work is yet to be completed;
• Flood Flow
Canal: Survey was done in 1980s. Cleared in 1996. Construction started in 2004. Progress of work very slow; yet to be completed;
• Pranahita: Surveyed in 1970. Inter State Agreement arrived at in 1978. Work not yet started, even after 32 years;
• Lendi: Agreement with Maharashtra Government reached in 1975. The Dam has already been completed by Maharashtra Government. Canal work yet to be taken up by the Andhra Pradesh Government.
• Lower
Penganga: Agreement with Maharashtra reached in 1975. Work not yet commenced, because of non allocation of funds by Andhra Pradesh.
• Yellampally: Sanctioned in 1997. Work progressing at snails pace.
• Davadula: Sanctioned in 2001. Announced to be completed in 18 months. It is a decade by now, but not even 1/3rd of the work is completed;
• Jurala: Construction started in 1976. Work is yet to be completed, even after 34 years.
• Bheema LI: Survey was done in 1983. CWC clearances obtained. The work is yet to be completed.
• Kalwakurthy: Survey was done in 1984. Work commenced in 2004. A substantial part of the Project is yet to be completed.
• Nettempadu: It was sanctioned in 1991 but work on it commenced after 13 years, Project is still incomplete;
• SLBC Tunnel: Sanctioned in 1981. 29 years have rolled by, the work done so far is not even 10%;
• AMRP: Work started in 1995. Even after fifteen years, progress is still limping;
3) Neglect of Projects inherited from Hyderabad State:
• Nizamsagar: The ayacut reduced from 2.75 lakh to 1.00 lack acres
• RDS: Contemplated to irrigate 87, 500 acres. But not more than 30,000 acres are irrigated
• Kadam: Ayacut reduced from 68,000 acres to 30,000 acres
• Upper Manair: It is now actually a dead Project
• Koilsagar: Contemplated capacity is 3.9 TMC. Actual utilization is only 1.6 TMC.
• Dindi: Contemplated capacity is 3.7 TMC. Actually utilization is only 1.6 TMC.
• Ghanpur anicut: Designed to irrigate 30,000 acres, but catering to needs of less then 10,000 acres.
4) Regional Bias:
• Sriramsagar Project (SRSP) on Godavari and Jurala Project on Krishna are the only two major projects that are meant exclusively for Telangana. They were started decades ago, but are yet to be completed, because of the niggardly attitude of the State Government regarding the funding of these projects.
Whereas, work on Projects taken up much later in Andhra area is progressing with jet speed. For instance: Pulichinthala Project and Pothireddipadu Head Regulator.
• Telugu Ganga Project on the right bank of Srisailam Project (Andhra area) has already taken a massive shape.
On the contrary the SLBC tunnel on the left bank of Srisailam Project (Telangana area) is yet to come out of its very preliminary stage.
• SRSP Stage-II and Flood Flow Canal Projects in Telangana area have been given all clearances by the Government of India and the CWC. But the progress of work is very slow, due to inadequate allocation of funds.
Whereas the work on Projects in the Andhra area which do not have proper clearances from the Government of India and the CWC is progressing with enormous speed. Projects like Polavaram and Pothireddipadu Head Regulator come under this category.
• A number of Projects have been taken up in Andhra area by utilizing regenerated flow of water.
But no such project is contemplated in Telangana.
• Figures are deliberately inflated while showing the areas irrigated under the projects in Telangana. For instance, SRSP is able to irrigate only about 5 lakh acres, but the Government claims it as 10 lakh acres.
On the contrary, in the Krishna and Godavari Deltas of Andhra area, extent of land irrigated is always far more than what the Government shows.
The Stark Realities:
Telangana is encircled by two major rivers of south India i.e., Krishna and Godavari. Within the state of Andhra Pradesh, 68.5% of catchment area of river Krishna and 69% of catchment area of river Godavari are in the Telangana region. In addition, most of the tributaries of these rivers traverse its length and breadth. If waters of these rivers flowing through the region are utilized, almost every acre of cultivable land available in Telangana could be provided with assured irrigation facilities and every village could be provided with assured drinking water facilities. But Telangana has been denied of its rightful share in the river waters by the successive governments for over more than half a century, irrespective of the political parties and leaders in power.
River Krishna
While determining the share of waters of river Krishna among the three riparian states, i.e. Maharashtra, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh, the Bachawat Tribunal allocated 811 TMC of water to Andhra Pradesh, besides the freedom to use surplus water. The allocation of water among different regions of the State has, however, been on the basis of Projects considered by the Tribunal. If catchment area is taken as the principal criterion for allocation of waters between different regions of the state, as is normally done between different states of the country, Telangana should get 68.5% of the 811 TMC. If cultivable areas in the river basin, rainfall, subsoil levels of water, backwardness of the region etc. also are taken into account, Telangana region would be entitled to not less than 70% of the total quantum of water allocated to the state. But the allocation made for the projects in the Telangana region was only around 35%. If the actual utilization of water is taken into account, it is only about 10 to 11%. As a result, out of 811 TMC of assured water, besides another 100 to 150 TMC of surplus water of the River Krishna utilized in the state of Andhra Pradesh, Telangana accounts hardly for 70 to 100 TMC on an average.
Consequently, out of nearly 35 lakh acres being irrigated under the projects built on river Krishna, hardly 5 lakh acres are benefited in the Telangana region and the rest in the other regions.
River Godavari
The Bachawat Tribunal allocated 1480 TMC of Godavari water to Andhra Pradesh; and half of this water is yet to be utilized. The Coastal Andhra region has been the major beneficiary of the water already utilized. Under the Sir Arthur Cotton Barrage in Dhawaleswaram alone more than 10 lakh acres of land is getting irrigation facilities with nearly the same acreage in the second crop. But in the Telangana region, the area irrigated with the Godavari waters is not even 5 lakh acres. Therefore, the people of this region demand that the remaining water still available in Godavari should be utilized mostly, if not solely, for the benefit of Telangana region. The government has been making only promises, day in and day out on this score, but nothing has been done significantly so far, and is not likely to be done in near future. The real intention of the ruling sections is to divert the untapped water of river Godavari to Coastal Andhra and Rayalaseema regions by interlinking Godavari and Krishna Rivers, thereby depriving the Telangana region of its due share in the Godavari waters as well.
Regional Disparities
Because of the factors enumerated above, the benefit of irrigation through the canal system under major and medium irrigation projects is accruing substantially, i.e. around 82%, to the Coastal Andhra region, while the share of Telangana is just abut18%.
While this is the scenario with regard to canal irrigation, the situation regarding the other two sources of irrigation i.e. tanks, as also wells, is equally bad.
Tank Irrigation
At the time of formation of Andhra Pradesh the area irrigated under a vast net work of tanks in the Telangana region was more than 12 lakh acres. This net work of tanks was developed over a period of four to five centuries. After the formation Andhra Pradesh, the state Government claims to have spent, during the last 54 years, several thousands of crores of rupees for the maintenance and development of minor irrigation facilities. Therefore, the area under Tank Irrigation should have substantially increased. But it is going down steeply year after year and now stands at hardly at 5 lakh acres.
It has happened so, because the silt accumulated in the tanks is not removed, breached tanks are not repaired and some of the tanks that were operational have been deliberately damaged to promote urbanization in and around the major towns and cities especially the capital city of Hyderabad. In this process small and marginal farmers became helpless, abandoned cultivation and sold their lands in distress, at a throw away price, to the rich migrants from Coastal Andhra. These lands became a goldmine for the migrant settlers to do the real estate business. Development of areas in the name of Film City, Hi-Tech City, East City and so on has thrown the local people not only out of their vocations, but also out of their homes.
Well Irrigation
In this situation the farmers of Telangana are left with only one alternative i.e., well irrigation. But the well irrigation has many disadvantages as compared to canal irrigation. Canal irrigation is ensured by the government by spending on construction of dams, digging of canals and supplying water to the fields every season. The entire cost is borne by the government i.e. spending tax-payers money. In return the farmer pays about 200 to 250 rupees per acre per annum as water charges. It is extremely negligible when compared to the huge amounts spent by the government. This is necessary to support agriculture sector in any region or in any state for that matter. Therefore, no one will grudge this. But the same facility is not extended to a majority of farmers in Telangana who depend mostly on well irrigation. The farmer will have to pay from his pocket for sinking well and for buying pump-set etc. In addition, he is required to pay power tariff which he is, however, exempted from for the time being. But there is no guarantee of is continuance in future. He has to also incur huge expenses on getting the water pumps repaired as they get frequently damaged because of erratic fluctuations in voltage. As a result, a farmer in the Telangana region depending on well irrigation is compelled to spend huge amounts on recurring expenses in addition to capital investment on sinking well and installing pump-set. It is, thereby, a self financed scheme of development, whereas, most of the farmers in Coastal Andhra get water at a heavily subsidised rate of 200 to 250 rupees per acre per annum besides not spending anything on the infrastructure. It is evidently a public funded development.
How can and how long this unjust disparity can be tolerated?
The Jala Yagnam:
The policies being pursued by the present government of the State are adding fuel to the fire. The so called Jala Yagnam is only a mask to cover the evil designs, causing further damage to Telangana. The controversial Pothireddipadu Project is aimed at illegally diverting Krishna waters to the non-basin area in the Rayalaseema region, without meeting the legitimate requirements of the Krishna basin area in Telangana. Similarly, the unauthorized construction of Polavaram Project is essentially aimed at siphoning of Godavari waters to Coastal Andhra. It is further planned to stretch the benefit to outside Godavari basin in that region, thereby, depriving the Telangana region of its rightful share in the Godavari waters as well.
The propaganda indulged in, day in and day out, by the State Government regarding the number of acres proposed to be given irrigation facilities in Telangana, under the so called Jala Yagnam is a travesty of truth. It has issued an order according to which bulk of the area in the Telangana region would be covered by the sprinkler and drip irrigation system. The government maintains that under this system one TMC of water would be enough to irrigate between 15 to 20 thousand acres of land in Telangana. But, the same government maintains that in the other regions, especially the Coastal Andhra, one TMC of water can irrigate only 3700 acres. The State Government expects the world to believe this untenable and fantastic proposition. All these gimmicks are being resorted to side track the basic issue of determining fair share of Telangana in the allocation river waters.
The ongoing debate about irrigation facilities, especially on utilization of river waters in Andhra Pradesh has, therefore, many dimensions – economic, political, moral, legal and also emotional. It has the potential to determine the future of the State itself.
(Detailed notes regarding the construction of irrigation projects in Telangana region and a few important projects of Andhra region, which have bearing on Telangana right from the inception of the State of Andhra Pradesh are appended.)
THE PROPOSAL OF ERSTWHILE HYDERABAD GOVERNMENT
The Hyderabad Government planned to provide irrigation for around 70 lakh acres to Telangana Region through grandiose projects such as Tungabhadra project (left bank canal), Upper Krishna project (Right Bank canal), Bheema Project and Nandikonda Project (Nagarjunasagar) all in Krishna Basin and Godavari Valley project, Inchampally Project and Devanur Project in Godavari Basin. All these projects have either been shelved or curtained. The Bachawat Tribunal on Krishna Waters, in its report categorically mentioned that “Had there been no division of the State (Hyderabad), there were better chances for the residents of this area to get irrigation facilities”. (Annexure-I)
A. Bachawat Tribunal’s observations with reference to specific projects:
1. Extension of the Tungabhadra Left Bank Canal to Andhra Pradesh:
In 1947, the Hyderabad Government proposed the extension of the left bank low level canal in order to irrigate 1, 20,000 acres in Gadwal and Alampur taluqs in Telangana with an annual utilization of 19.2 TMCs. Unfortunately, this request made by Government of Andhra Pradesh to include the project for allocation was not conceded by the Tribunal on the ground that the Project was not accepted by the Govt. of India for inclusion in the second five year plan before 1st Nov. 1956. The Government of Andhra Pradesh should have put forth their arguments more forcefully before the Tribunal and seen to it that the claim was made acceptable. There is a mention in the report of the Tribunal itself that “the council of Andhra Pradesh claimed relief under section 108 (2) of the state Reorganization act, 1956 only and did not argue that Andhra Pradesh was entitled to the relief under section 107 & 108 (1) of the act or under any other provision of law”. (Annexure-II)
2. Extension of a Project on the Bheema in Mysore to Andhra Pradesh:
The Hyderabad Government contemplated construction of the Bheema Reservoir Project in Gulbarga district for irrigating 4 lakh acres in Gulbarga and Mahabubnagar districts. After 1956, the Karnataka Government proposed two schemes namely Bheema Lift Irrigation Scheme and Bheema Irrigation Project at different locations in lieu of the earlier proposal made by the Hyderabad Government. Government of Andhra Pradesh made a request to the Tribunal that they may be permitted to construct the Bheema Project at the same old place namely Tangadgi in Mysore with proviso to make extension of canal to Mahabuubnagar district in Andhra Pradesh to irrigate 3,80,000 acres with an annual utilization of 100.7 TMC of water. Again, in this case also the Tribunal did not accede to the request of the proposal of the Government of Andhra Pradesh on the ground that the Bheema Project was neither taken in hand by the Government nor included in the second five year plan before the 1st Nov. 1956.
3. EXTENSION OF UPPER KRISHNA PROJECT:
The Hyderabad Government proposed construction of Upper Krishna Project for irrigating Gadwal and Alampur taluqs of Telangana and other areas in Hyderabad State. The Project would have benefited to the extent of 1, 50,000 acres with an annual utilization of 54.4 TMC of water. In this case too, the Tribunal did not accept the proposal of the State Government on the plea that the Project was neither taken in hand, nor included in the second five year plan before the 1st Nov.1956.
Thus, 174.30 TMC of Krishna Waters through the three Projects cited above were deprived to the Telangana Region of Andhra Pradesh, because of casual approach adopted and the non serious arguments put forward by the council of the Andhra Pradesh before the Hon’ble Bachawat Tribunal. Had these 174 TMC of precious waters been made available to the region in gravity manner, the Mahabubnagar district would have flourished as one of the richest districts of the State, producing surplus food to cater to needs of the other parts of the country. Today, because of denial of rightful share of their waters the district has turned as a perennial famine and drought stricken area. Around 14 lakh people migrate to other parts of the country in search of employment annually.
4. JURALA PROJECT:
The Bachawat Tribunal has made the following observations in respect of Jurala Project.
“The Sate of Andhra Pradesh, no doubt, has been allotted enough water for historical reasons, but still Telangana part of the state Andhra Pradesh stands in need of irrigation. The area which we are considering for irrigation formed part of Hyderabad state and had there been no division of that state there were better chances for the residents of this area to get irrigation facilities in Mahabubnagar district. We are of the opinion that this area should not be deprived of the benefit of the irrigation on account of the reorganization of states. If properly managed, Jurala Project stage-I can operate by utilizing about 18 TMC. We, therefore, think it proper that 17.84 TMC of water at 75% dependability should be allocated for stage-I of the Project.
If it turns out that the Jurala irrigation Project is not a practical proposition, it is expected that 17.84 TMC would be utilized by the State Andhra Pradesh elsewhere in Telangana Region. We cannot conceive that the State of Andhra Pradesh having put forward the claim for allocation of water for Telangana region and having received an allocation for use in that region would use it elsewhere outside that region” (Annexure-III)
Thus, it can be seen that the allocation of 17.84 TMC to the Jurala Project has been purely a benevolent act on the part of the Hon’ble Tribunal as a part compensation in lieu of the huge loss sustained by the Telangana to the extent of 174 TMC due to the inefficient and callous attitude of the Government of Andhra Pradesh in not protecting the legitimate rights of the Telangana region accrued to them under the State Reorganization Act.
5. RAJOLIBAND DIVERSION SCHEME. (RDS):
An agreement was entered in to between the Governments of the Madras and Hyderabad in June, 1944 in regard to scheme for the partial utilization of the Tungabhadra waters. As per this, the Rajolibanda Canal proposed by Hyderabad will be treated on an equal status with that of an existing Kurnool-Cuddapha canal (KC Canal). Further, it stated in the agreement that at the point of diversion of the Rajolibanda Canal the natural flow will be divided half and half between Madras and Hyderabad. (Annexure-IV)
Thus, it is evident that the allocation to the KC Canal and RDS Canal should have been equal. However, for the reasons best known to the Government of Andhra Pradesh they have not strongly put forward the claim that both these Projects should be treated on equal footing, with the result the Tribunal allocated 39.9 TMC to KC Canal and 17.1 TMC to RDS Canal. Out of the 17.1 TMC the Karnataka’s share is 1.2 TMC and the rest (15.9 TMC) is the entitlement of the AP. (Mahabubnagar District of Telangana). (Annexure-V)
In reality, the Mahabubnagar district never realized more than 6-7 TMC against their share of 15.9 TMC. A perusal of the record of the utilizations of the Project reveals the facts (Annexure-VI). The Government on several occasions admitted openly that the main reason for shortfall in supply to RDS Ayacut is that there are a few construction sluices (Openings) that remained unplugged in the RDS anicut built across the Tungabhadra River. (Annexure-VIA) The waters that were due to the RDS Canal pass through these unplugged holes of anicut downstream to the Sunkesula anicut to serve the farmers of the KC Canal. The KC Canal farmers are reaping the benefits of these additional waters that legitimately belong to the RDS farmers and made available to them due to the inefficiency and inability of the Government of Andhra Pradesh in not plugging the illegal construction sluices. Some efforts, which were made in the past to plug these holes in the anicut were made futile by the brutal force used by the KC Canal farmers. The net result is that while the KC Canal farmers are enjoying the waters of Tungabhadra much more than their legal share, the poor farmers of the Mahabubnagar district stand to loose. This is a classic example to show the partial attitude of the Government of Andhra Pradesh and the discriminatory approach adopted by them towards the Telangana region. A visit to RDS anicut and Sunkesula Barrage by the Committee would reveal the facts.
APPORTIONMENT OF KRISHNA WATERS:
The Hon’ble Bachawat Tribunal has apportioned the Krishna Waters among the three States namely Maharashtra, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh. The apportionment was based on the principle of ‘priority of appropriation’ and as well as the reasonable requirement of the Projects of each State. Based on these principles the distribution was 800 TMCto Andhra Pradesh, 700 TMC to Karnataka and 560 TMC to Maharashtra.
The region wise share in the allocated quantity with reference to the project wise allocation and catchments area of Krishna basin lying in the three regions of Andhra Pradesh are as under:
Sl.No: Rayalaseema Coastal Andhra Telangana: Total:
1 Catchments area of Krishna basin lying in the region
(SQ. Miles/Percentage)
5414
18.39%
3860
13.11%
20.167
68.50% 29.441
100%
2 Allocation as per Krishna Water Disputes Tribunal Award (TMC./Percentage) 133.70
16.71% 388.44
48.56% 277.86
34.73% 800
100%
3 Utilization of water outside the
Krishna basin
(TMC./Percentage) 53.60
40.1% 362.60
93.33% Nil
Nil 416.20
52.02%
Note: 33 TMC of evaporation losses of Srisailam Hydro-Electric project allocated equally i.e., 11 TMC for each region.
Source: Report of the Expert Committee on utilization of River Waters in Andhra Pradesh Krishna River Basin – Vol.1 relevant extract (Annexure-VII)
From the above, it is seen that the Tribunal has allocated 34.73% of Krishna waters against its due share of 68.5%, if the allocation is based on catchment area. As per principles laid down by the International Institute of Law (Helsinki Rules) the water allocations amongst basin states are based on the following parameters with suitable weightage to each one of them: (Relevant extract at Annexure-VIIA)
1. Catchment area & Rainfall
2. Population
3. Cultivable area
4. Backwardness
5. Availability of other sources of water
6. Prior users
Had Telangana been a separate State, the claim of Telangana would have been not less than 548 TMC. What has been allocated by the Tribunal (277.86 TMC) is just half of the rightful share that it is entitled to. It is painfully noted that Telangana region is deprived of even this meager quantity that has been allocated to it through discriminatory, unlawful and unethical acts of the State Government as revealed in the subsequent paras.
DISCRIMINATORY ACTS OF STATE
1. JURALA PROJECT:
In order to utilize 17.84 TMC allocated to the project by the Tribunal, the dam has been constructed to store 11.94 TMC. Unfortunately, the reservoir has never been filled up; up to FRL. The only reason for not filling up the reservoir up to FRL (Full Reservoir Level) is the nonpayment of sum amounting to Rs. 44 crores to the State of Karnataka to evacuate people from submerged area. The callous attitude of the Government in not paying the dues to Karnataka has made a mockery of the reservoir remaining getting practically half empty. (only, during the recent times the Jurala Reservoir is reported to have been filled up) Though, the Project has commenced way back in 1980, still it remains incomplete. The water could not be utilized fully an account of non-completion of the distributary system. The pathetic part is that the Jurala waters are being utilized in the ayacut of RDS so as to benefit 30, 000 acres of tail end ayacut, which has been denied the supply of Tungabhadra waters, for the reasons that have already been explained in earlier paras, vide G.O. No.77, dated 15-04-1999 (copy enclosed at Annexure-VIII) Further the Jurala waters are also transferred to Kurnool area of Rayalaseema occasionally, which is nothing but violation of the stipulation of the Tribunal’s directions.
2. RDS:
As if the sorrows of RDS perpetuated by KC Canal farmers are not sufficient a mini hydel project namely Swarna is under execution just upstream of the RDS anicut. The waters that will be used for generating power at the Swarna Mini Hydel Project will deprive the already reduced flows of the RDS Canal since; the outflows of the hydel plant, instead of joining RDS Canal would directly join the main river down stream of the RDS anicut. The Government of Andhra Pradesh have kept a cool attitude towards the whole affair when the plant was commenced for construction and when the farmers of Mahabubnagar district agitated, the Government preferred to be silent. The matter was taken up by one Mr. Atmalinga Reddy before the Supreme Court in the year 2008. The Supreme Court has found fault with the State Government and observed that “The State of Andhra Pradesh, in fairness, ought to have placed all facts subsequent to filing of the counter affidavit, when the matter was heard by this Court. The State, however, failed to do so.” Now the matter is before the Brijesh Kumar Tribunal. (Annexure-IX).
3. NAGARJUNA SAGAR:
The Nagarjuna Sagar Project (Nandikonda Project) earlier was taken up for execution on the basis of joint report 1954 of the erstwhile Andhra and Hyderabad States. As per this report, a total of 20.99 lakh acres was to be irrigated. The Left Bank Canal which serves Telangana and Andhra was to cater to 7.95 lakh acres of Telangana and 2.05 lakh acres of Andhra area. The water that was be utilized in Telangana was to be 161 TMC and 25 TMC for Andhra region. However, the Planning Commission, which sanctioned the Project in the year 1956, had curtailed the ayacut of Telangana to 6.6 lakh acres for which utilization was fixed as 111 TMC. Similarly, the ayacut for the Andhra was fixed as 1.3 lakh areas and the utilization sanctioned was 21 TMC. The Government Andhra Pradesh has made several manipulations during course of execution of the Project and finally brought down the ayacut of Telangana to 5.32 lakh acres through gravity for which 90.2 TMC would be utilized and 0.70 lakh acres through lifts by utilizing 9.8 TMC. Thus, a total of 100 TMC is shown to be allocated to Telangana by ruthlessly curtailing the legitimate share of Telangana by 11 TMC (and same was added to the Andhra’s share and with the result the utilization for Andhra has been increased to 32.25 TMC and ayacut also was increased to 3.8 lakh acres). Thus, a clear gap of 58,000 acres ayacut in the share of Telangana has resulted. In order to make up the gap ayacut the State Government directed that at a later date this could be brought under irrigation, however, no extra water was allocated for this and this was to be managed by internal saving. The intention of the Government was to bring more areas in Nuziveedu and Tiruvur of Krishna district of Andhra under the cultivation at the cost of Telangana. (Relevant extract at Annexure-X).
The above shows how the State Government is inclined to promote the interests of the Andhra area at cost of causing sufferings and loss to the poor farmers of Telangana. When the matter was raised by Hon’ble Members of the Committee on Estimates of the Fifth Legislative Assembly the reply of the Government was totally unconvincing as could be seen from the relevant extracts of Annexure-XI.
Another mischief played by the Government of Andhra Pradesh was to drop the left bank canal in to the Palair Reservoir and taking the off-take point at a much lower level than the FRL of the Palair Reservoir. The Hon’ble Members of Committee on Estimates have observed that “by letting the main canal into Palair River the level seems to be reduced by five feet and also the off-take is again reduced by eight feet which also results in considerable reduction in the ayacut beyond” The reply of the Government is so astonishing that the Government instead of rectifying its wrong deeds have tried to get shield by making a statement that “any change at this juncture would create complications lower down where major works are in progress and they would get effected”. (Relevant extracts at Annexure-XII) It is also surprising that the Hon’ble Committee on Estimates have accepted the Government’s reply. Instead of pulling the Government to rectify the damage and fixing the responsibility for such an intentional, negligent and callous act of the concerned, chose to remain silent.
The Andhra Engineers working on Left Bank Canal investigation brought out a strange argument that sufficient ayacut in Telangana was not available and the Government have accepted their plea. Hence, Andhra ayacut has been increased.
During Telangana Agitation in the year 1969, the Government reversed its stand and ordered that the original ayacut in Andhra and Telangana be restored. As the agitation calmed down, the Government again took a ‘U’ turn and reduced the Telangana ayacut. Even if there is no ayacut available under gravity irrigation, same could have been transferred to lift irrigation and the total ayacut could be kept as per the original plan. Where was the need to reduce the allocation of Telangana and transfer the same to Andhra? This is a clear case of discrimination shown against Telangana.
(Relevant Government Orders enclosed vide Annexure-XIII)
When the Hon’ble Members of the Estimate Committee desired that one lakh acres should be brought under Lift Irrigation to Telangana as per the original plan, the Government went on explaining their difficulty in implementing the suggestion and stated that they may be permitted to bring only 50,000 acres under Lift. (Relevant abstracts enclosed vide Annexure-XIV)
Discrimination against the Telangana Farmers:
From the beginning, the Right Bank Canal of Nagarjunasagar serving Andhra area is being shown preference over the Left Bank Canal, which serves part of Andhra area besides Telangana. Whether it is a matter of allotment of funds or designing the size of Canals, fixing the levels of the canals or releasing the water from the reservoir etc., the partiality is clearly visible. The expenditure figures reflecting in the form of potential that has been reported in the annual budget of Government of Andhra Pradesh for some of the years prove the point (Extract enclosed vide Annexure - XXV). The variations in sizes of the Left and Right Bank Canals, though, the designed discharges are equal, would also vindicate the same. The interesting point to note is, in case of Right Bank Canal the discharge is reduced from 21,000 cusecs to 11,000 cusecs at the time of execution, The bed width of the Canal has been increased to 241 ft from the designed bed width of 155 ft, where as in case of Left Bank Canal while the discharge is same i.e. 11,000 cusecs both at design and execution stages, but the bed width as executed is reduced to 95 ft from 134 ft, the designed bed width. (Figures enclosed vide Annexure -XXVI). The field visit to the Nagarjunasagar Dam by the Hon’ble members of the Commission would show that the reported and actual levels of the outlet sluices of both the Canals are at variance.
It is a matter of pain and anguish to bring the fact to the kind notice of the Commission that though the lift schemes are existing and operating on Left as well as the Right Bank Canals, yet, the farmers of Left Bank Canal depending on lifts are required to pay the electricity charges, whereas, the farmers enjoying the lift arrangements on Right Bank Canal are not to pay any thing, since, the Government bears the charges (vide Annexure - XXVIA). The different treatment meted out to the Telangana farmer’s vis-à-vis Andhra farmers shows how the Government of Andhra Pradesh is not at all impartial.
Construction of Nagarjuna Sagar Tail Pond:
The tail pond reservoir at the toe of the Nagarjunasagar Dam was to be constructed long time back, since it carried the necessary clearances from the Central Government in the year 1972. The tail pond is to capture flows used for generation of electricity flowing through the penstocks and pump the same back to the reservoir through reversible turbines. The Government intentionally did not construct the tail pond. Instead, it went on producing the power and wasting the flows downstream to the river. Many a times, these flows could not be utilized by the Krishna Delta farmers. In the name of generation of power, the authorities supplied water to the Krishna Delta farmers in quantities more than their requirement, detrimental to the interests of farmers of Left and Right Bank Canal. It is now only, the tail pond has been taken up for construction, however, with a different objective. The intention is to facilitate the diversion of Godavari waters to Krishna basin using the tail pond reservoir. The hidden agenda of the Government is obvious. It wants to replace the releases from Nagarjunasagar to the farmers of Left Bank Canal fully and Right Bank Canal partially by Godavari waters, so that the waters saved could be stored in Srisailam reservoir to be utilized by the Rayalaseema and other projects in Prakasham district. The hurry in which the tail pond is taken up now is a clear indication of the strategy/mal-intention of the Government to deprive Telangana of its legitimate share of Godavari as well as Krishna waters.
Water supply to twin cities of Hyderabad & Secunderabad:
The twin cities lie in Krishna basin. The Bachawat Tribunal has made an allocation of 3.9 TMC towards this item. Since the demand of twin cities increased leaps and bounds, additional supplies from Manjeera, a tributary to Godavari were also made available. To cope up with the further demand, the Government have taken up Krishna water supply scheme to augment water supplies to the Twin Cities in three phases, 5.5 TMC in each phase. While the first phase is over, the second phase is nearing completion. The Government has suddenly reversed its stand and decided to stop the implementation of the third phase of the sanctioned programme. Based on a typically strange argument that the needs of Capital City would be enormous in the coming years and the Krishna would not be able to meet the requirements, the Government has decided to bring the water from far location on River Godavari at huge cost of Rs. 3375 crores covering a distance of 240 Km and involving a huge lift, when implementing Krishna Phase-III scheme would have cost only Rs. 850 crores and the distance involved is just 110 Km. All this to see that the Krishna waters are stored in the Srisailam reservoir to be utilized for irrigation out side the Krishna basin. After meeting the requirements of Rayalaseema and Prakasam district, then only the balance could be utilized in Telangana and other downstream users. This is the sole intention of the Government.
Inter-se priority of utilization of Krishna water:
As per the Bachawat Tribunal’s directions all the projects that have been included in the category –I and Category-II mentioned in their report would get same priority in utilization of Krishna waters (Relevant abstracts enclosed vide Annexure -XV). However, the Government of Andhra Pradesh has always preferred to release waters to the Krishna Delta on priority over the Nagarjunasagar ayacutdars. The matter was brought to the notice of the Government several times and this was one of the issues of consideration that were raised by Sri K. Chandrasekhar Rao, the then Union Minister for Labour and Employment before the then Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh in a meeting held in the presence of Sri Digvijay Sing the then AICC General Secretary and Incharge of Andhra Pradesh. The Government did not change their attitude even after explaining them the direction of Tribunal. Now, the same procedure is adhered to. The Government have been maintaining that Krishna Delta farmers are prior users and therefore, they should be given preference to Sagar beneficiaries. If the same argument is extended, the ayacutdars of Alamatti would have to wait till Nagarjunasagar Ayacutdars get their waters fully. This is a clear violation of the verdict of the Bachawat Tribunal and such acts are detrimental to the interests of Telangana region.
SRISAILAM PROJECT:
This Project constructed upstream of Nagarjunasagar is to act as a balancing reservoir for Nagarjunasagar, besides, producing Hydel power. The Project is prohibited to serve irrigation as specified in the Tribunal report at several places. (Relevant abstracts enclosed vide Annexure-XVI). However, the Government of Andhra Pradesh through sheer manipulations converted the reservoir in to an irrigation reservoir gradually. The reason as to why the Tribunal permitted utilization of 33 TMC towards evaporation loss in this reservoir was because it was basically a reservoir to serve irrigation purposes downstream. This facility was denied to Government of Maharashtra in respect of Koyna reservoir, since the waters of Koyna after producing the power would join the Arabian Sea and not utilized for irrigation at all as in case of Srisailam. (Relevant abstracts enclosed vide Annexure-XVII) The Government never bothered about the directions of the Hon’ble Tribunal and went on violating all the provisions and stipulations of the Tribunal in a phased manner to suit their convenience. The list of Irrigation Projects directly depending flows from Sirsailam Reservoir (are shown at Annexure-XVIII).
Pothireddipadu Head Regulator:
Pothireddipadu Head Regulator constructed in the foreshore of the Srisailam reservoir in the year 1983 envisaged to divert dependable flows of 15 TMC meant for water supply to Chennai through Telugu Ganga Project and 19 TMC for Srisailam Right Bank Canal (SRBC) and 29 TMC of surplus flows to be carried through the Telugu Ganga to benefit the farmers of Kurnool and Kadapa. Though, the Central Government has not given its sanction to Telugu Ganga Project, State has continued to spend huge sums on this project, on which a number of balancing reservoirs to store surplus flows are constructed. The details of these are at Annexure –XIX.
Not content with the diversion of these surplus flows the Government have resorted to divert the dependable flows in the garb of surplus flows to the Penna Basin and other areas of Andhra with a crude strategy to benefit Andhra region at the cost of Telangana.
As per the principles of International Law Institute and the National Water Policy and the observations of the Bachawat Tribunal, (extracts at Annexure-XX), the areas lying within the basin would be entitled to the waters of the basin. It is only after meeting the interests of the basin, the surplus flows, if any could be diverted to the areas out side the basin. Even in case of Narmada the Hon’ble Tribunal expressed its inability to allocate waters of Narmada to the Rajasthan State, simply, because, Rajasthan was not a basin State. On the same principle, the regions and the districts lying within the Krishna basin naturally would get preference over the other basins, whether they are dependable flows or surplus flows or flood flows. But, the Government of Andhra Pradesh would not respect any laws or directions of Tribunals or Courts or any Institutions, if they do not suit to their line of thinking.
The Tribunal had recommended that the Minimum Draw Down Level (MDDL) of the Srisailam reservoir be kept at 830 feet in order to take maximum advantage of power production vide extract at Annexure-XXA. The Government have fixed the MDDL as 834 ft in the year 1996 vide G.O.Ms.No. 69 (Relevant portions enclosed vide Annexure-XXI), based on suggestions of Bachawat Tribunal (Relevant abstracts enclosed vide Annexure-XXII), However, the Government have mischievously raised the MDDL to 854 feet in the year 2004 to cater to the needs of Rayalaseema region, at the cost of power generation and irrigation interests of Nagarjunasagar and Krishna Delta. The raising of MDDL vide G.O.Ms.No. 107, a copy at Annexure-XXIII, was to facilitate drawl of Srisailam waters under all circumstances though Pothireddipadu Head Regulator whose sill level is 841 feet. This was the first act in the drama of diverting the flows of Krishna River to the outside basin. Therefore, a series of G.O.s followed one after another namely G.O.No.170, G.O. 233, G.O.No.3 and so on.(copies at Annexure-XXIIIA). By means of these G.O.s, the Pothireddipadu Head Regulator was permitted to be widened four times the present capacity. Though, the Government continues to make false statements that only the surplus flows would be diverted, but in reality, their intention is to divert the dependable flows to the detriment of the farmers downstream. The statements made by the then Hon’ble Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy, prove the point beyond doubt. (Paper cuttings enclosed at Annexure-XXIV)
The reason explained by the Government for increasing the capacity of the Head Regulator is that because of construction of Alamatti Dam, the period of inflows into the Srisailam Reservoir has reduced considerably. Therefore, there is a need to divert the surplus flows only within a span of 30 days. To serve this purpose, not only the capacity of Pothireddipadu Head Regulator is increased four times, the sizes of other components have been increased sufficiently. Many balancing reservoirs have been added to capture these surpluses. However, this facility is not extended to the Telangana Projects. The Nettempadu, Kalwakurthy and SLBC projects which are to serve the irrigation purposes of the drought affected areas of Telangana are to depend on the surplus flows for a period of 90days and not 30 days as designed in case of Rayalaseema Projects. No balancing reservoirs are planned to capture the surpluses in case of Telangana Projects as done for other Rayalaseema Projects. This sort of adopting double standards only reveals the apathy of the Government towards Telangana.
Banakacherla Cross Regulator:
The waters of Krishna stored in Srisailam diverted through Pothireddipadu Head Regulator would flow in to the Srisailam Right Main Canal and then distributed through Banakacherla Cross Regulator to various Projects. While the Pothireddipadu Cross Regulator was constructed in the year 1983 with a capacity of 11,150 cusecs the Banakacherla cross regulator was sanctioned in 1985 with a capacity of 32,300 cusecs. It is not understood why the discharging capacity of the cross regulator was kept three times of the head regulator capacity. Obviously, the intention was to divert more flows through the Pothireddipadu Head Regulator at a future date. Citing the capacity of Banakacherla cross regulator the Government has wisely increased the capacity of head regulator after 27 years. This episode clearly depicts that the Andhra rulers have preplanned to divert as much flows of Krishna to Penna Basin in a phased manner and accordingly they devised the strategy.
Luxury of having water to the second crop of the Krishna Delta:
Despite several requests made by the Government before the Bachawat Tribunal, the Tribunal did not accept to allocate more than 15.3 TMC of water, which could be utilized to irrigate 37, 498 acres of the second crop of the Krishna Delta, besides meeting the requirement of green manure, water supply, washing of salinity, navigation etc. However, the Government is continuously, as a matter of a right utilizing the flows of Krishna River to raise the second crop in the Krishna Delta to the extent of 4-5 lakh acres. ( Relevant extract of Tribunal’s report at Annexure - XXIVA)
PULICHINTHALA PROJECT:
The Pulichinthala Project, now under execution is essentially envisaged to capture intermittent flows below the Nagarjunasagar Dam. The Tribunal did not agree to allocate any waters to Pulichinthala Project. The Project is meant to stabilize the Krishna Delta ayacut, besides providing irrigation to the second crop and third crop subject to availability of water. When commenced it did not carry any permissions from any authority except that of Central Water Commission. The essential clearances from Environmental Ministry of Union Government were lacking, yet the State proceeded ahead facing lot of hindrances from the Courts and criticism from voluntary agencies. One of the main objections raised against the Pulichinthala was that Government did not consider viable alternatives. This has also figured in the meeting held between Mr. K. Chandrasekhar Rao, the then Union Minister for Labour Employment and the then Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh in presence of Sri Digvijay Singh, AICC General Secretary and Incharge Andhra Pradesh State. The State Government promised to consider the suggestion of looking into the alternatives, but miserably failed to do so. The Project would submerge 30, 000 acres of land besides submerging thousands of tones of valuable limestone deposits, spread over 472 acres of land. The alternatives suggested by Sri Hanumantha Rao, Retired E-in-C would have served the objective of the Project without creating any submergence. But, the Government is adamant and not prepared to consider any suggestion. In fact the Environmental Act warrants study of alternatives. This shows that the Government does not respect any Environmental law, or any other law of land. It has a hidden agenda of promoting the interests of Andhra area at the cost of submerging valuable lands of Telangana, displacing number of hapless poor farmers of Telangana and disrupting the economy of the locals who loose the opportunity of working in the cement factories that would get displaced.
UTILIZATION COMMITTED ACCORDING TO ALL PARTY RESOLUTION OF 1981
In pursuance of the resolution passed in the all party meeting held in 1981, Telugu Ganga Canal with extension to Sagileru Valley to irrigate 2.75 lakh acres with utilization of 29 TMC of surplus flows was sanctioned to the Rayalaseema region. On the same lines, Srisailam Left Bank Canal to irrigate 3 lakh acres in Nalgonda district with utilization of 30 TMC was granted to Telangana region. Though, both were to be treated on par, in reality, the Telugu Ganga Canal was always treated superior and preferred to the SLBC. The fact could be verified from the flow of funds to each Project in each year and the time taken for completion of that Project.
The comparison of budget outlays in crores for a few years for these two Projects is given as under:
Year Telugu Ganga SLBC
1984-85 60 crores 3.5 crores
1985-86 75 crores 15 crores
1995-96 200 crores 100 crores
2005-06 574 crores 145 crores
2006-07 465 crores 299.75 crores
2007-08 446.07 crores 380.76 crores
2008-09 227.23 crores 471.12 crores
2009-10 190.81 crores 419.50 crores
(Relevant extracts at Annexure-XXVIB)
The report an annual budget for the year 1996-97 admits that “work on SLBC, Dormant for the last five years, has been expedited” (extract enclosed vide Annexure-XXVII)
It is seen that both Projects were started in the year 1983. As per the financial progress is concerned, the Telugu Ganga Canal is 75 percent complete and SLBC has just crossed half mark. The latest estimated cost of Telugu Ganga Project is 4,432 Crores, whereas, the SLBC’s latest cost is 4,073 Crores. The cumulative expenditure up to January, 2006 incase of Telugu Ganga is 1880.40 crores and the same is 687.5 crores for SLBC. This means that the expenditure for Telugu Ganga was three times the expenditure for SLBC. It is only during last four years, when Telangana Agitation spearheaded, more funds have been pumped into the SLBC Project. Also since tunnel component has been added to the Project, the need for more funds was felt. The cumulative expenditure up to January, 2010 in case of Telugu Ganga is 3,151.66 crores against 2,196.5 Crores in case of SLBC (3:2). Though, both Projects are accorded same priority in terms of the all party resolution of 1981 and the total cost is almost same, there is huge variance in terms of the total expenditure. This is a clear example to show the Government’s apathy towards Telangana Projects.
Source:
The annual budgets of Government of Andhra Pradesh for various years.
APPORTIONMENT OF FLOWS OF GODAVARI:
As per the Bachawat Tribunal for Godavari Waters about 1480 TMC could be utilized as dependable flow by Andhra Pradesh. The catchment area of Telangana is 79% against 21% from Andhra. As per the guidelines of International Law Institute Telangana would have been entitled to 1169 TMC had Telangana were a separate State.
Except Sriramsagar Project (Pochampad) and Sir Arthur Cotton Barrage (Dhawaleshwaram Barrage) there are no other major structures on Godavari in Andhra Pradesh. Now, there is a proposal to construct Polavaram in Andhra area, Yellampally, Devadula, Kanthalapally, Pranahitha-Chevella and Dummugudem in Telangana. While, Polavaram is a gravity scheme all projects contemplated in Telangana are lift schemes requiring huge power.
Under Sir Arthur Cotton Barrage 10 lakh acres are being irrigated in each season (Kharif and Rabi). To provide water for second crop under the Barrage, there were several occasions, when the water was released from SRSP and Kinnerasani Project, ignoring the interests of Telangana.
THE PROJECTS IN GODAVARI BASIN:
The Hyderabad Government proposed Godavari Multipurpose project and Inchampally project on main Godavari and Devanur project on river Manjeera, tributary to Godavari.
GODAVARI PROJECT:
The Hyderabad Government framed a proposal for taking up Multipurpose Godavari Valley project in the year 1954. The Project was proposed to utilize 330 TMC of Godavari waters to irrigate 20.5 lakh acres of main crops besides 4.5 lakh acres of catch crops (green manure and fodder) and 3 lakh acres of forest fuel and pasture, at a cost of Rs. 85 crores. The Project was to generate 144 mw of power, for which installed capacity of 175 mw was proposed. The Project was to be constructed in four stages. The Hyderabad Government has claimed it as one of the best irrigation schemes in the Country. The Project was to serve areas in seven districts of the Hyderabad State, namely Nanded (now in Maharashtra State), Adilabad, Nizamabad, Karimnagar, Warangal, Khammam and Nalgonda. All these districts except Adilabad are densely populated and the cultivators are used to irrigation under numerous tanks scattered in the area. Further, the Project would serve a very large area in the Krishna Basin in Nalgonda and Khammam districts, which has no other source of irrigation. Further, this area frequently suffers from scarcity and due to the failure of rains at the crop periods. However, the Project did not materialize.
As could be seen from the Fifteenth Report of the Sub Committee on Planning of the Andhra Pradesh Regional Committee as adopted on 8th June, 1959, the Pochampad Project was proposed in place of the erstwhile Godavari Valley Project with modified scope. As per the modified proposal, the cost of the Project was 117.85 crores and it would serve an ayacut of 18.56 lakh acres in five districts, namely Nizamabad, Karimnagar, Warangal, Khammam and Nalgonda.
Despite strong recommendations from the Sub Committee on Planning of the Andhra Pradesh Regional Committee to the Government of Andhra Pradesh, to get the Project included in the second five year plan, the Government of Andhra Pradesh did not succeed due to the strong objections from the Government of Maharashtra. The Project which commenced as a Medium Project now ultimately got sanction from the Planning Commission as a Major Project with much reduced scope as compared to the original proposal envisaged by the Hyderabad Government.
As per the Project now under execution (SRSP Stage-I, SRSP Stage-II and Flood Flow Canal), it is to serve an area of 16.68 lakh acres.
Pochampad, the only prestigious Major Project, which is considered as the lifeline of the Telangana, is suffering badly due to inefficient and discriminatory attitude of the Government. The Project started in the year 1963 is still progressing with snail’s space. The report of annual budget of Government of Andhra Pradesh for the year 1959-60 says “ a medium project on Godavari at Pochampad in Adilabad district has been investigated and report being submitted to the Government of India with a view to make a beginning, if possible, during the period of second planning it self ”. The report on annual budget for the year 1966-67 says “due to pressure of demands for several projects and schemes, it has not been possible to provide more than Rs. 1.2 crores for the Pochampad Project next year”. However, Rs. 8.2 crores were allocated to Nagarjunasagar Project, 1.98 crores was allotted Tungabhadra High level canal, 0.43 crores for Tandava Reservoir and 0.12 crores for KC Canal. It can be realized that except Nagarjunasagar, which is a Project which would benefit Telangana region (approximately ¼ to Telangana and ¾ to Andhra) all other Projects belong to Andhra area and Government did not find any problem in allocating funds to them. ( Relevant extract at Annexure-XXVIIA). Further, the budget allocations to the Project were always given lesser priority as compared to Nagarjunasagar Project, as can be noticed from the extracts at Annexure-XXVIIB. Evidently, the Government did not pay adequate attention toward this Project, being the Telangana Project.
As far as the progress of construction of Pochampad project now named as Sri Ram Sagar Project (SRSP) is concerned, the comments of the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) for the year ended 31st March, 1999 is worth perusal and they are reproduced as follows: “due to non completion of Kakatiya Canal between Km 235 and Km 284, as also of some distributaries under the all Canals, only 2.55 lakh (65 per cent) ha irrigation potential had been created by 1990, though, the Canal system started functioning from 1970. The potential actually utilized during the last five years was, however, still lower (0.55 to 0.87 lakh ha), a meager 34 per cent of the potential created (2.55 lakh ha), and only 22 per cent of that envisaged (3.92 lakh ha). The low utilization of potential was attributed mainly to (i) reduction of varying capacity of Kakatiya Canal from 8,500 cusecs to 5,000 cusecs due to bed siltation and broken lining (ii) over drawl of water in upper reaches”. The Government claims that it has completed SRSP stage-I successfully in the year 2004 and it has developed potential of 9.68 lakh acres. However, as per the report of Chief Engineers of dated 12-09-2008, the ayacut irrigated under SRSP project is only 5 lakh acres. (Relevant extract vide at Annexure XXVIII). This shows that the claims made by the Government are not at all true. The fact could be verified by the Hon’ble members of the Commission from the farmers of SRSP Stage-I, during their field inspection.
The Kakatiya Canal, the principle carrier of SRSP waters was originally planned to have a length of 234 Km. However, the same was extended up to 284 Km, under SRSP Stage-I. The works on the Canal up to Km. 234 were carried out with assistance under Second World Bank Project. Thereafter, the balance works between Km. 235 to Km. 284 were continued with State Funds as well as Central assistance under AIBP. However, while processing the third Project in April, 1997. World Bank Authorities observed that simulation model studies conducted by the department indicated that extension of command beyond Km. 234 was not warranted; as supply of water would be extremely unreliable. Against this background, the works being executed on Kakatiya Canal beyond Km. 234 were of doubtful utility, as commented by the Comptroller and Auditor of India, in his report. The relevant extracts of the CAG report is at Annexure-XXVIIIA.
When the water availability is so doubtful, even to bring the Canal up to Km. 284, the purpose behind taking further the Kakatiya Canal from Km. 284 to Km. 346 is nothing but fooling the Telangana people, in the absence of assured supplies.
SRSP STAGE – II
This component at a cost of Rs. 1,098 crores is supposed to create irrigation potential of 4, 40,000 acres. Though, Rs. 763.67 crores are reported to have been spent on the Project, not even a single acre has been added to the cultivated area. Pitiably, the Government claims that they created new potential of 1, 64,687 acres till end of January, 2010, which is utterly false and this can be verified in the field. The surprising part of this Project is that Government still has not decided from which source this Project will get water. The main SRSP Reservoir is unable to serve even the first stage ayacut fully, as already pointed out by the CAG (please refer the earlier para). Therefore, the SRSP stage-II has to depend on waters either from Yellampally Project or Devadula Project, which are under construction or Pranahitha-Chevella Scheme, which is yet to be grounded. However, the Government has apparently come up with a proposal to meet the needs of SRSP-II by constructing Kanthalapally Barrage downstream of Devadula. It is to be seen, ultimately from which source the waters to the SRSP-II would actually materialize.
The problems faced by SRSP Project:
Numerous problems are faced by SRSP. On one hand, the inflows in to the reservoir have reduced considerably. The envisaged inflows of 196 TMC into SRSP Dam are not realized and only around 150 TMC are experienced. The capacity of the reservoir got reduced due to heavy silitation in the reservoir ( 112 TMC got reduced to 80 TMC). The main canal namely the Kakatiya, which was supposed to carry a discharge of 9,700 cusecs is unable to carry the designed discharge due to faulty designs and lapses in the construction. The problem is aggravated due to construction of Babli Project and eleven more schemes upstream of SRSP by Government of Maharashtra. Now, there are apprehensions in minds of the farmers of SRSP that the reservoir will not get sufficient flows, once all the Projects now under execution by Government of Maharashtra are completed, with the result, the fields of SRSP will turn into desert and the farmers will be forced to commit suicides.
The Babli and other Projects under construction by Government of Maharashtra:
The Government of Andhra Pradesh was virtually caught sleeping, when Babli and other eleven Projects were taken up by Government of Maharashtra upstream of SRSP. It was only when the Media and some of the opposition parties have brought the issue in to light, then the Government woke up and started taking some actions that too making correspondence with Government of Maharashtra. From the chronology of the events that took place since the issue caught up the Government’s attention, it is very clear that the Government did not take the matter seriously. The inordinate delay in realizing the importance of the issue now poses a serious threat to the farmers of SRSP. It was only after Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) and other political parties have taken up the matter to the Supreme Court, the Government of Andhra Pradesh also took some steps in that direction. All the Projects which are under construction by the Government of Maharashtra are almost complete. In particular, the Babli Project is complete except for erection of gates. The matter is before the Hon’ble Supreme Court. The State Government instead of taking advice from the engineering and legal experts and cooperation from all political parties is trying to isolate them. In fact, the State Government requested the Supreme Court to dismiss the petitions filed by the opposition parties. The seriousness with which State Government is fighting the case of Polavaram in the Supreme Court is not at all seen in case of Babli project. The number of people’s representatives and Officials present at the time of hearings of both the cases would prove the point beyond doubt. The Government is acting in step motherly manner so far as protecting the interest of SRSP is concerned. On the other hand, the State Government is very much concerned about the hindrances that are coming in the way of Polavaram Project. This itself shows that the Government of Andhra Pradesh is favourably disposed towards Andhra area in preference to the Telangana.
Projects undertaken under Jalayagnam Programme:
Around 82 Projects Major and Medium are taken up by the Government under Jalayagnam programme at a huge cost of 1, 76,000 crores. In Godavari Basin, a number of major Projects namely SRSP stage-II, Flood flow Canal, J. Chokka Rao Devadula Lift Irrigation Scheme, Sripadasagar (Yellampally), Pranahitha-Chevella and Dummugudem Nagarjunasagar Tail Pond have been undertaken. Polavaram Project is the major project taken up in the Andhra area, besides a few lift schemes namely Thadipudi Lift Irrigation Scheme, Pushkaram Lift Irrigation Scheme. A new Project namely Babu Jagjeevan Ram Uttarandhra Sujala Sravanthi is also included in the list of Projects for which budget provisions have been made in the year 2009-10.
PRANAHITHA-CHEVELLA:
The Project is estimated to cost Rs. 38, 500 crores. The ultimate irrigation potential is 16.4 lakh acres. While the budget provision for the year 2009-10 was just 600 crores, the same for year 2010-11 is mere 700 crores. These figures indicate as to how serious the Government is in executing the Project. Government says that it will make efforts to include this project in the prestigious ‘National Projects Category’. It is not known whether the State Government’s request will be accepted by the Union Government. It is not known how many years the Project needs for completion. If Central Government does not provide adequate assistance, how the State Government proposes to complete the Project is not understood. In the Policy Statement, on the Demand for Grant on Major and Medium irrigation in 2010-11, The Government of Andhra Pradesh has mentioned that “The work load of Dr. Ambedkar Pranahitha-Chevella Sujala Sravathi divided in to 28 packages and agreements for all the packages concluded. Investigation work is in progress in all the packages”. It means that, even without undertaking ground survey and preparing detailed project report and submitting to Government of India for approval, the Government has already awarded the work through 28 packages to the contractors and the contractors in turn have collected mobilization advances. Even the agreement with the Government of Maharashtra has not been concluded to obtain their concurrence, since Pranahitha is an inter-state river and head works lie in territory of Maharashtra. The Project needs huge power to the extent of 3375 MW. The Government has not planned yet from where the required power will be provided. Further, who will bear the cost of energy, once the Project comes in to operation is not worked out. The situation being so clumsy, the Government makes false promises to the people of Telangana, that they are determined to provide huge benefits to the farmers of Telangana through this Project and making a big campaign of the Project. (Copy of advertisement at Annexure-XXVIIIB). As per the campaign, the Project is slated for completion by May, 2012, a deceitful statement.
In fact, the Andhra Engineers are dead against the sanction of this Project, because they apprehend that the flows of Pranahitha will upset the functioning of Polavaram Project, once Pranahitha-Chevella comes into operation. This is evident from the following happenings. The then Chief Minister while giving clearance to the Pranahitha-Chevella Project verbally has instructed his officials to expedite the administrative approval to the Project. The Chief Minister was enthusiastic over the proposal of lifting 160 TMC of Pranahitha waters and carrying them even up to Chevella, a drought prone area of Ranga Reddy district. But the officials put every spoke in clearing the project. They tried to scuttle the size of the Project, by giving a Government order (copy enclosed vide Annexure-XXVIIIC) to the effect proposing 5.5 lakh acres of ayacut only, in place of 12 lakh acres as originally envisaged. Further, they tried to complicate the issue by introducing the condition that the proposed transfer of water from Pranahitha is subject to satisfying the Government that this transfer is within the water allocation as per Inter-State Godavari Water Tribunal Award. It was only after the intervention of Chief Minister, who reportedly expressed displeasure over the mess created by his officials (Vide Annexure-XXVIIID), the controversial G.O. was scraped and revised G.O. (copy enclosed vide Annexure-XXIX) permitting to lift 160 TMC as originally envisaged and without the reference to the Inter-State Godavari Water Tribunal Award was issued. However, both the G.O.s referred above are for the preparation of Detailed Project Report, Detailed Investigations etc. only. The Government have now accorded the Administrative Sanction to the scheme for Rs. 17, 875 crores. Though, this Government order was ready for issue quite some time back, this was held in abeyance deliberately and finally issued only along with another G.O. for taking up Dummugudem-NS Tail Pond on the same date. (Copies of both the G.O.s are at Annexure-XXX). This was done to minimize the opposition from Telanganites, who are opposed to taking up Dummugudem-NS Tail Pond Project, since this would deprive them of their legitimate share of Godavari waters.
DUMMUGUDEM-NS TAIL POND:
This Project is aimed to lift 165 TMC of water from river Godavari from upstream of Dummugudem anicut and carry to Nagarjunasagar Project Tail pond during flood season of Godavari to supplement irrigation under Nagarjunasagar Project. The scheme is a mischievous one, contemplated by the Government to divert the dependable flows of Godavari to Krishna basin in the garb of flood flows, to benefit the farmers of Rayalaseema by process of substitution. In fact, no body either is interested or requested the Government to provide supplementation to the irrigation under the Nagarjunasagar Project by means of Godavari waters. The present flows of NS Dam, if properly and judicially managed would be adequate to cater to the needs of N.S. ayacut. No farmer of N.S. Project is interested to replace the traditional system of getting water from Krishna by Godavari waters that too by huge lifting, about 500 meters requiring 1136 MW power.
The Government faced the ire of opposition parties in the Assembly over this Project. The opposition parties termed this Project as “ill-conceived and unscientific and was against the Godavari Water Disputes Tribunal Award”. They said the benefit expected from the Project did not justify its huge expenditure of Rs. 20,000 crore. Further, they said the State would have to loose the part of share of Krishna waters, once the Godavari water was diverted to the Krishna (Relevant extract at Annexure-XXXA)
The real intention of the Government is to divert the dependable flows of Krishna to Rayalaseema and other areas through Pothireddipadu Head Regulator from Srisailam Reservoir and in lieu they intend to transfer Godavari waters. While concealing the real intention of the Government, they are trying to bring the Godavari waters at a huge cost of around Rs. 20,000 crores. Not even a single acre of additional ayacut will be benefited under the scheme. The irony of the whole scheme is that while depriving 165 TMC of dependable flows (in the name of flood flows) that legitimately belong to Telangana just to benefit the Andhra area (mainly Rayalaseema), the Government has included this proposal under the Telangana Projects category.
Diversion of Godavari waters in to Krishna Basin:
As per the Godavari water disputes Tribunal the State of Andhra Pradesh can divert 80 TMC of Godavari waters to Krishna Basin from Polavaram Dam. However, it has to loose 35 TMC of Krishna waters of its share from the date of clearance of the Polavaram Project by the Central Water Commission, irrespective of the actual diversion taking place. Also Krishna Water Dispute Tribunal has stipulated that in the event of the augmentation of waters of the river Krishna by the diversion of the waters of any other river, no State shall be debarred from claiming before the aforesaid reviewing authority or Tribunal that it is entitled to greater share in the waters of the river Krishna an account of such augmentation nor shall any State be debarred from disputing such claim.
In addition to loosing 35 TMC of Krishna waters on account of diversion of 80 TMC of Godavari waters from Polavaram, 72 TMC of Krishna waters (on the same analogy of diversion from Polavaram) would have to be sacrificed, once the diversion of 165 TMC of Godavari waters into Krishna Basin, through the Dummugudem-NS tail pond Canal takes place. Thus, 107 TMC of valuable Krishna waters are to be sacrificed by the State to the Maharashtra and Karnataka due to these two diversion schemes. However, the Government is least bothered about loosing of the Krishna waters to the upper States. They are only interested in diverting as much Krishna waters as possible from Srisailam Reservoir, through Pothireddipadu Head Regulator, at the cost of Telangana and other downstream users.
J. CHOKKA RAO DEVADULA LIFT IRRIGATION SCHEME:
Devadula Lift Irrigation Scheme contemplates lifting of 38.18 TMC of Godavari waters to irrigate 6.21 lakh acres in upland drought prone areas of Karimnagar, Warangal and Nalgonda districts from an elevation of 71 meter to 540 meter. The Project cost already sanctioned is 6,016 crores and the same is being revised to Rs.9, 317 crores. The funniest part of this scheme is that there is no structure proposed to be built at the place of lifting. The water proposed to be lifted is directly from the river itself. If the water level goes down below the intake of the pumps, the whole system would collapse. The Government did not heed to the advice of the experts and proceeded ahead as per their wish. Now only, having realized their mistake, has devised another scheme namely Kanthalapally Project to provide constant water levels to facilitate lifting from Devadula, but unfortunately, the Kanthalapally Project, though, accorded administrative approval for Rs. 10,409 crores vide G.O.Ms.No. 27, dated 16-02-2009 is not awarded yet to the contractors and the tendering process has just begun. The Devadula Project, now under execution is suffering very badly due to inferior quality of work and lack of supervision by the department. It has been noticed that on more than one occasion, the pipes laid down blew off, whenever, the water was gushing through the pipes under pressure, at the time of trial runs. The Government obviously did not pay adequate attention to the quality of work.
INDIRASAGAR POLAVARAM PROJECT:
This Project has been taken up by the erstwhile Government on a priority basis and is considered as a prestigious one. Despite, several serious objections from the Environmentalists, Tribal leaders, Farmers, People likely to be submerged by the Project and other Non Governmental Organizations and without obtaining even a single Statutory Clearance from the Concerned Authorities, the Government has gone ahead and without bothering about any law of the land or consulting any expert in the matter. As per Environmental Act, 1986, before launching any Development Project, alternatives are to be studied. Further environment clearance, forest clearances are mandatory. Unfortunately, the Government did not obtain even the site clearance, which is first and foremost clearance needed to be obtained from the Ministry of Environment and Forests, before taking up the Project. The Government already spent around 2, 500 crores. The matter is before the Hon’ble Supreme Court. The Government of Orissa is seriously objecting to the Project on ground that they are not consulted and their concurrence was not obtained as per the agreements specified in the Bachawat Tribunal for Godavari waters. They are not interested to get an inch of their land submerged due to Polavaram. Even the High Court of Orissa gave directions to the effect. The Environmental clearance obtained from the Government of India was found to be based on false information furnished by State Authorities. Without holding mandatory public hearings in Chhattisgarh and Orissa, the State of Andhra Pradesh have furnished wrong reports and obtained Environmental clearance. On an appeal, the clearance was struck down by the Environmental Tribunal.
The agreement reached between the Madhya Pradesh (now Chhattisgarh), Orissa and Andhra Pradesh provides for designing the Dam taking into consideration of the flood magnitude of 36 lakh cusecs. Since the flood has increased to 50 lakh cusecs, the design of the Dam and protection works for submergence need to be done afresh and concurrence from the States is needed. The scope of the Project is also changed. While in the Project report, it is mentioned that 7.2 lakh acres will be brought under irrigation, in reality, canals to irrigate 23 lakh acres are excavated.
As far as Telangana is concerned their objection is that the Project is submerging 206 villages of Khammam district of Telangana, as per Government’s report with magnitude of 36 lakh cusecs. The field survey is yet to be done. This figure is in dispute. With onslaught of 50 lakh cusecs, how many villages would come under submergence is yet to be established. Even with 36 lakh cusec flood, as per old records, Project is submerging around 2 lakh acres of valuable land, mostly belonging to Tribal people. The entire Tribal community will get displaced and they are vehemently opposing the Project. Therefore, in a meeting held at New Delhi in presence of Digvijay Singh on 20-07-2005, the then Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh was requested by the President of Telangana Rashtra Samithi that the unauthorized construction of Polavaram Project for which there is no clearance may be stopped and alternatives be worked out. The Government having agreed to the proposal, however, made a mockery of the agreement by instituting a Committee by framing terms of reference, such that, the present proposal is the only the answer. The Government is now in a dilemma, as they do not know what would be the fate of the Project, if the Supreme Court does not allow the Polavaram Project. Knowing fully well, that the Project is yet to receive approval from the Supreme Court, the State Government has pressurized the Union Government to issue all clearances and they are making full efforts to get the Project included in the National Project Category. Telangana is not opposed to give water to the beneficiaries of the Project. What they are interested is that a series of small Projects could be built in place of the present Project, so that submergence can either altogether be avoided or kept minimum.
The essential dam break analysis forming part of disaster management study was required to be carried out properly by the Project Authorities and the results were necessarily required to be informed to the people in the public hearing. Certain vital information was deliberately concealed in the public hearing. It is a matter of interest to note that as compared to Sardar Sarovar Project and Tungabhadra Project, the ratio of area of submergence to the area benefited is too high in case of Polavaram. While it is 21.89% in case of Polavaram, it is 7.15% in Tungabhadra and a mere 1.77% in case of Sardar Sarovar.
SINGUR PROJECT:
The Singur Project across River Manjeera, Tributary to River Godavari came into existence in place of Devanur project, which was contemplated by the erstwhile Hyderabad Government. While the Devanur Project was basically aimed to generate power, the Singur Project was planned to originally achieve two fold objectives to arrest siltage and to stabilize storage in Nizamsagar. In addition to providing 8.35 TMC for stabilization of Nizamsagar ayacut, 4.06 TMC to Ghanpur ayacut, 4 TMC to the City water supply, 2 TMC was allotted for new ayacut in Medak District. But in reality, the Project has been converted into a water supply Project to serve the Twin Cities. The promised irrigation supplies to the Nizamsagar ayacut and Ghanpur ayacut have been made dependent on the water availability in Singur. Practically, the farmers of Nizamsagar and Ghanpur ayacut have felt that they are cheated, since original promise made to them for stabilization of Nizamsagar and Ghanpur anicut never materialized. Though, promises were made to give 2 TMC of water to irrigate 40,000 acres of new ayacut in Medak district, it was only a few years back that too at the instance of T.R.S. the G.O. in the matter was released. (Copy enclosed vide Annexure- XXXI) and still the water is not made available to the beneficiaries.
In fact, Manjeera has a limited potential of 99 TMC only and it cannot support the demands of water supply to Twin Cities, since, it has already commitment to irrigate the existing Ghanpur and Nizamsagar projects. (The relevant extract of report is at Annexure- XXXII)
The Committee constituted by Government of Andhra Pradesh in the year 1972, under the Chairmanship of Sri K.V. Srinivasa Rao, Chairman, A.P. State Electricity Board to consider and finalize additional resources for augmentation of water supply to Twin Cities while expressing the limitation of Manjeera has expressed his views in the following words:
“It will not, therefore, be desirable to tap this River further for augmenting the water supply to Twin Cities…… Hence, it is suggested that detailed investigation may be carried out for tapping water from Srisailam Hydro Electric Project”.
Despite clear recommendations of the High Power Technical Committee against diverting water from Manjeera and bringing water from Krishna, the Government has managed to get a report from the Department which opined that “The Manjeera has unutilized flows to the extent of 10 TMC per annum, which can be allotted to the Hyderabad city for water supply”. They have also expressed that Krishna water Tribunal has not made any specific allocation of water from the River Krishna for water supply to the Twin Cities, which utterly is a false statement. Krishna Water Dispute Tribunal has specifically allocated 3.9 TMC towards water supply to Twin Cities. (relevant extracts at Annexure-XXXIII)
The fact is that then Minister for Municipal Administration Sri Challa Subba Rayudu, belonged to Rayalaseema region. Like any leader of the Rayalaseema he also was not in favour of utilizing Krishna waters for any other purpose, except for Rayalaseema. With this ill motive, the Government have entered into agreement with Karnataka, and made them to agree to permit construction of Singur in place of Devanur. Thus, Singur has come into existence to store waters from Manjeera to serve, mainly twin Cities and steal waters of Manjeera from the farmers of Telangana (Medak and Nizamabad districts). All this is done to help the Rayalaseema region at the cost of Telangana. This is a clear-cut example to show the discriminatory attitude of Government of Andhra Pradesh towards Telangana. When the farmers of Medak District opposed to Singur project, the Government promised to allocate 2 TMC from Singur to irrigate 40,000 acres of new ayacut in Medak district and they have issued orders vide G.O.Ms.No. 455, dated 31-10-1980. This promise is not fulfilled till to date. Only, at the instance of Telangana Rashtra Samithi the Government was forced to issue another G.O. in the year 2005 for honouring their old commitment. (Copy enclosed wide Annexure- XXXIV). However, the work is yet to be completed.
GHANPUR ANICUT:
As reported in the Government order 272, dated 07-10-1993 (Annexure-XXXIVA), the “Ghanpur ayacut scheme across Majeera River was constructed in 1905 for irrigating 30,000 acres in Medak district. The main crop grown in the ayacut is Paddy”.
The farmers under the Ghanpur ayacut were enjoying 4.06 TMC of Majeera waters and irrigating the designated ayacut without problems till the Singur Dam was constructed by the Government of Andhra Pradesh. Even during 1980 the Government vide G.O. No. 190, dated 12-04-1980 (Annexure-XXXIVB), the Government has reiterated its commitment on Singur Dam as follows: “Fathenahar and Mahabubnagar (Irrigation) as 4.06 TMC”. Both the nahars are canals taking off from the Ghanpur anicut. However, the real problem to the farmers of Ghanpur had arisen when the Government as a part of deal with the World Bank Authorities, who provided substantial assistance to the Project, agreed that they would operate the Singur Reservoir in accordance with the operating rules approved by the Bank. Accordingly, Government of Andhra Pradesh have laid down operating rules for Singur Reservoir specifying the minimum Reservoir levels for each month vide G.O. No. 93, dated 24-02-1990 (Annexure-XXXIVC). Further, in the said G.O. it is mentioned that “water for irrigation shall be released only when the water levels are higher than minimum levels indicated ….”. Thus, the irrigation requirements of the ayacutdars, who have been enjoying their riparian rights since 1905 have been subordinated to the dictatorial conditions laid down by the World Bank agencies. Since then, each year the farmers of Ghanpur anicut had to go to the Government with begging bowls requesting them to release at least a fraction of their entitled share of water.
It can be seen that vide G.O.No. 10, dated 02-01-2009 (Annexure- XXXID), Government have permitted release of 1.95 TMC (against their entitlement of 4.06 TMC). Again vide G.O.No. 1000, dated 22-12-2009 (Annexure – XXXIVE), as a one time measure, Government accorded permission for release of 0.3 TMC to irrigate 10,000 acres I.D. during Rabi 2009-10. Accordingly, this year the farmers raised the crops to extent of 10,000 acres after investing considerable amounts. The farmers, after utilizing 0.3 TMC waters released as first installment have been eagerly waiting for further releases, but in vain. Frustrated, with Government’s inaction in not releasing timely supplies, the farmers approached the Chairman, Human Rights, who gave favourable orders. Though, the Government have released waters now the same are of no utility to the farmers, since, by that time the crops have already wilted. The farmers had to undergo huge loss besides mental agony. This is the pathetic story of Telangana farmers in general and Singur ayacut in particular, who have to surrender their legal entitlements in favour of those, whom the Government considers as superiors. The hapless farmers of Ghanpur anicut are anxious to meet the Hon’ble Members of the Committee to recite their unending woes during their field visit to the Project.
NIZAMSAGAR PROJECT:
The erstwhile Government of Hyderabad constructed Nizamsagar Project in the year 1931 to irrigate 2.75 lakh acres of land utilizing 58 TMC of water. While the live storage of Reservoir was 25.6 TMC, dead storage was provided to the extent of 4.12 TMC. It was visualized that Devanur Project upstream of Nizamsagar would be taken up later for generating power and regulating supplies to Nizamsagar Project and also would act as silt arrester. In view of the developments that took place as explained in the above para, Devanur was dropped and Singur was converted as the water supply Project. Not only the Nizamsagar Project starved for the dependable supplies from upstream, it suffered badly on account of heavy siltation. Practically, it has lost 60% of its original capacity during the period of 42 years. Subsequently, the Government have raised the height of the Dam and improved the capacity of the Reservoir by 6 TMC. However, the position has not improved significantly and the Reservoir is not able to irrigate more than 1 lakh acres of the ayacut. In order to supply the tail end areas, two lift schemes namely Alisagar and Gutpa to divert water of Godavari from upstream of Sriramsagar Project have been commissioned recently. This is the pathetic story of the glorious Project built by erstwhile Nizam Government (then it was considered as one of the biggest Project, in Asia) and stands as testimony of the utter negligence of the Andhra Pradesh Government, just because it is a Telangana Project.
INCHAMPALLY:
The Inchampally Project proposed downstream of confluence of Indrāvati and Godavari Rivers was found to be one of the best sites by the Central Water Commission. Though, an agreement was entered into between the States of Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Andhra Pradesh on 07-08-1978, the work could not be proceeded ahead, since the Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra had objected to the 112.77 meter FRL, proposed for the Project by Andhra Pradesh. As per the agreement, the Telangana would get 80 TMC of water by gravity and 5 TMC by lift. Despite repeated consultations amongst the three States, in the presence of Union Government, no concurrence could be achieved to the proposal. The Union Government, instead, proposed a low Dam with the reduced FRL of 95 meters. Unfortunately, the Government of Andhra Pradesh rejected the Union Government’s proposal. Had the proposal of Government of India with reduced FRL accepted at that time (in the year 1995), the Low Dam would have materialized and Telangana reaped certain benefits. Further, Union Government offered financial assistance to build the Low Dam and were ready to mediate for settling the disputes arising out of submergence. Due to adamant attitude of the Government, the golden opportunity of having a low Dam was missed. Now, the State Government has changed its mind and prepared to have a Low Dam with 95 meter FRL. However, no discussions with the neighboring States have taken place. While it is a fact that Inchampally and Polavaram were having similar problems (the Government of India had difficulties in clearing the Projects due to serious objections from the neighboring States as can be seen from the Annexure-XXXV), the Polavaram Project was started by the State Government without any clearance from any authority or concurrence from the neighboring States, but there was no progress at all in case of Inchampally. This clearly shows that the Government’s intentions lie in promoting the interests of Andhra, but not bothering about poor Telangana farmers.
LOWER PENGANGA PROJECT:
The Lower Penganga Project is a joint Project between state of Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh on Penganga River, tributary of river Godavari. The project would benefit an ayacut of 27,300 ha in Andhra Pradesh (Telangana) and 2.27 lakh ha in Maharashtra. An agreement was concluded between the States on 6th October, 1975. It is a pity that even after 35 years, such a small project could not be commenced, as necessary persuasion from the State Government’s side was lacking.
LENDI INTER STATE PROJECT:
This is another Inter-State Major Irrigation Project of Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra States. The Project would benefit 22,000 acres in Andhra Pradesh and 27,000 acres in Maharashtra. An agreement was concluded between the two States on 18-11-2003 to take up the Project as a joint venture. The apportioned cost to Andhra Pradesh is around 202.19 crores. So far only, Rs. 45 crores have been spent, which shows lack of interest in getting the Project executed early, since it is to benefit Telangana.
KINNERASANI PROJECT:
Kinnerasani Project built across Kinnerasani, a tributary of river Godavari, with an utilization of 8.14 TMC is envisaged to serve essentially the Kothagudem Thermal Power Plant (KTPS), with installed capacity of 680 mw and irrigation for 10,000 acres besides meeting the drinking requirements of Kothagudem and Palvoncha towns of Khammam district of Telangana. The proximity of the Project to the Godavari Delta has become a curse to the Project, since, whenever there is shortage of water in the river Godavari to meet the crop requirements of Godavari Delta, even for second crop (Rabi season), the Government does not hesitate even for a second and issues immediate orders for release of waters from Kinnerasani Project, to augment the supplies to Godavari Delta, not minding the sufferings of stake-holders of the Project. On 16-01-2009, in a span of 27 days 2.40 TMC of waters from the Kinnerasani were released to benefit the farmers of Godavari Delta, without bothering the protests from the KTPS authorities and interests of power production. This has resulted in closure of 2 units of KTPS for 3 days, leading to a significant loss of power. Further, the residents of both the towns, namely, Kothagudem and Palvoncha suffered very badly due to lack of drinking waters. Though the National Water Policy accords first priority to the drinking water and the Supreme Court held that the right to drinking water is the fundamental right and it is the responsibility of the State to supply drinking water, yet the Government have released the water for irrigation purposes that too for a different Project. This only shows how the Government is inclined to promote the interests of Andhra region at the cost of Telangana. A visit to the Project by the Hon’ble Members of the Committee would be extremely helpful in understanding the real situation.
MINOR IRRIGATION
Minor irrigation system (mainly tank irrigation) was developed in Telangana by rulers of Kakatiya, Qutubshahi and Asafjahi dynasty. Every village was self-sufficient with food production and the entire village people were engaged with farming work and ancillary works
Before the merger of Hyderabad State with the Andhra state, Telangana had about 16,000 big tanks, each irrigating an area of more than 100 acres, 60,000 small tanks having irrigation capacity of less than 100 acres and about 4000 ‘kathwas’ & cross bunds which used to irrigate 5-10 acres each. Under these 70,000 tanks about 13 lakh acres were being irrigated. Farmers used to produce Paddy under these tanks. Maize, jowar, pulses, groundnut, seasum etc. were produced in the dry lands as rain fed crops. The tanks were so designed that the surplus flow from one would reach the other and so on to form a chain system.
At the time of allocation of assured water in Krishna & Godavari basins the quantum arrived under minor irrigation system of Telangana region was about 200TMC.This itself is an ample proof that minor irrigation system was functioning with success. For example, there are tanks like Ramappa, Paakala, Ghanpur and Laknavaram which are functioning successfully for more than 500 years and irrigating the registered ayacut.
As the Government did not respond either to take up new major irrigation projects or maintain the dilapidated tanks, the farmers of Telangana region were forced to go in for tube well irrigation system, to eke out their livelihood. Since the tube well irrigation system needs pumping the farmers were required to make huge investments in digging the bore wells as well for installing the pumping system. There are incidents when the farmers had to dig a number of bore wells before striking at a bore well yielding the requisite supplies of ground water. Today, the number of pumpsets working in Telangana are around 18 lakhs. On an average 3 acres under each pump set is irrigated. In this process, each farmer has incurred about a lakh of rupees per acre to continue irrigation under bore wells. Thus, Telangana farmers have invested more than Rs. 25,000 Crores during the last 45 years. The main problem faced by farmers irrigating under tube well is the erratic supply of electricity, which results in burning the motor and consequently incurring heavy expenditure. Also crop failure due to non availability of sufficient water is another cause worrying the farmers. The net result is that the farmers, unable to meet the debt burden often tend to commit suicides.
Before the merger, Telangana had a total net irrigated area of 20 lakh acres comprising of around of 3 lakh acres from canals, 4 lakh acres from dug wells and balance 13 lakh acres from tanks. Thus, it can be seen that the major burden of providing irrigation to the area was on shoulders of tanks. In fact, tanks were considered as the lifeline of Telangana. There were 3-4 tanks, big and small in each village. Lot of attention was paid by the erstwhile rulers, Zamindars and landlords towards maintenance and up keep of tanks. However, after the merger with Andhra Pradesh, a false promise was given by Andhra rulers that most of the cultivable land of Telangana would be provided with canal irrigation. The Telangana people believed the Andhra rulers’ promises in good faith, since, at the time merger, out of the total net irrigated area 41 lakh acres in Coastal Andhra 27 lakh acres was under canal irrigation only. All the promises made by the Andhra rulers were proved to be futile. The Government’s statistics show that after 51 years i.e., during the year 2007-08 the canal’s irrigation in Telangana has increased by 2.65 lakh acres but the tank irrigation gone down by 9.25 lakh acres. Most of the tanks have either disappeared an account of urbanization or lost their retaining capacity due to lack of maintenance.
The combined irrigation from canals and tanks, for which the Government is mainly responsible has gone down by 6.6 lakh acres. Paradoxically, during this period the well irrigation which is entirely done at the cost of cultivators has gone up by 30 lakh acres. Mischievously, the Government, adding the well irrigation (which is done at the cost cultivators) with the combined irrigation of tanks and canals (both at the cost of Government) are claiming the credit for the increase in the total irrigation. On the other hand, in Coastal Andhra the combined irrigation from canals and tanks has increased during the same 50 years.
The details of net area irrigated from different sources namely canals, wells (tube & dug) and Tanks in Costal Andhra, Rayalaseema and Telangana are at Annexure- XXXVI
Disparities in the area of ayacut irrigated in Telangana and Andhra regions:
The cultivable area in Andhra region is 215.39 lakh acres, whereas it is 175.19 lakh acres in Telangana. There is a wide disparity in the areas irrigated in between both the regions. As can be noticed from the Table given below, the area irrigated in Kharif season in Major Projects of Telangana as reported in the Outcome Budget for the year 2007-08 for Major, Medium and Minor Irrigation Projects, presented to the Assembly is quite astonishing. Whereas, the cultivable area of Andhra (215.39 lakh acres)is just 1.23 times to that of Telangana (175.19 lakh acres), the irrigated area under major irrigation projects of Andhra (39.1 lakh acres) is about 3 times to that of Telangana (12.9 lakh acres). If the area irrigated in Rabi is also taken into account, the gap between both the regions would further widen, since, no water is made available to the farmers during the Rabi season in Telangana. Even taking the cultivable areas into consideration the ratios will slightly change to 2.60:1. Thus, the area irrigated in Telangana under major projects, in any year, is much lower than that of Andhra and therefore incomparable.
ACTUAL AYACUT IRRIGATED (KHARIFF) IN MAJOR PROJECTS
(Lakh Acres)
S. No: Name of the Project: 2006-07
Telangana
1. Nizamsagar 1.30
2. SRSP 6.27
3. NSLC 4.00*
4. Jurala 1.02
5. RDS 0.31
Sub Total : 12.9
Andhra
6. Vamsadhara 1.87
7. Godavari Delta 10.13
8. Krishna Delta 10.03
9. Pennar System including Somasila 0.24
10. KC Canal 2.72
11. TBP LLC 0.20
12. TBP HLC 0.89
13. Yeleru 0.53
14. NSRC 6.5
15. NSLC 2.5*
16. TGP 0.73
17. SRBC 0.60
Sub Total : 39.1
Grand Total : 52.01
Ratio of area irrigated in
Andhra to Telangana: 3.03:1
Percentage of area irrigated to cultivable area in Telangana: 7%
Percentage of area irrigated to cultivable area in Andhra: 18.2%
Ratio of area irrigated in
Andhra to Telangana (considering respective cultivable areas) 2.6:1
* Approximate
Source: Outcome budget for Major, Medium and Minor Irrigation of Government of Andhra Pradesh for the year, 2007-08.
Different statistics at different occasions:
It is noticed that the Government is presenting different statistics at different occasions, to suit their convenience. The Director, Economics and Statistics present one type of statistics and the Irrigation and Command Area Development Department furnish other. To cite an example, the areas irrigated in Telangana and Andhra at the time of merger as presented by the Director of Economics and Statistics are 20.02 lakh acres and 51.45 lakh acres respectively, whereas the Irrigation and Command Area Development Department furnish these figures as 3.5 lakh acres and 30 lakh acres respectively. Same figures as worked out for the present year by the former are 43.7 lakh acres and 72.4 lakh acres as compared to 54.14 and 100.01 by the latter. One would wonder which is correct and what is to be taken into account.
MICRO IRRIGATION:
Under Jalayagnam Programme, the Government have taken up a number of lift irrigation schemes for Telangana. It was proposed to utilize 1 TMC of water for 10,000 acres of ayacut under this scheme. For example, Bheema Project has an ayacut of 2 lakh acres and the proposed utilization was 20 TMC. All of sudden, the Government has issued a controversial G.O. No. 34, dated 09-02-2007; (at Annexure-XXXVII) introducing Micro Irrigation under all the lift schemes of Telangana. Vide this G.O. all the major Lift Irrigation Projects 100% ayacut is proposed for Micro Irrigation duly proposing 15,000 acres for 1 TMC of water. With the introduction of this G.O., the field channels will no more be required and the water will be supplied to the crops directly, through Sprinkler and Drip System by using power. The Government’s objective apparently is two-fold (1) to drastically reduce the allocation of water to the lift schemes of Telangana. (2) To make the irrigation a costly affair, so that the people would opt out from agricultural business.
The Government have thoughtlessly introduced the G.O., even without thinking whether it would be possible to irrigate around 50 lakh acres, which are proposed under lift schemes in Telangana, through Micro Irrigation. The Government never paid any attention, whether irrigation of crops through Micro Irrigation on such a big scale is adopted any where in the Country or elsewhere. On one hand, the Government issued the order to bring all the lift irrigation schemes under this programme and on the other hand stated a pilot Project will be taken up under AMR Project in Nalgonda as an experimental basis.
The National Water Policy (2001) emphasized that Sprinkler and Drip system of irrigation should be adopted wherever feasible. The Water Management Manual of Ministry of Water Resources, the Water Management Publication of Indian National Academy of Engineering, the Publications on ‘Sprinkler Irrigation’ and ‘Drip Irrigation’ of Indian National Committee on Irrigation and Drainage, Publication of Micro Irrigation Manual of Water Technology Centre, IARI and proceedings of National Work Shop on Micro Irrigation of Ministry of Agriculture have clearly brought out that Micro Irrigation is most suited for horticultural crops, Vegetables etc. The limitation for adopting this method is its high initial cost, which is beyond the purchasing capacity of small and marginal farmers and thus mainly adopted by large farmers. Even in the developed Country like U.S.A. not even 40% of the irrigated area is practiced under Micro Irrigation. Due to high initial cost, poor institutional support system, lack of skilled human resources etc. the Micro Irrigation has not been adopted by the farmers in the Country. Even in the advanced States like Gujarat and Maharashtra, the system did not go well with the farmers. Knowing fully well the farmers of Telangana are poor and would be unable to meet the high cost associated which Drip and Sprinkler System, the way in which the Government have issued the orders without consulting the experts or farmers only leads to thinking that the Government’s action is deliberate, to steal the waters of Telangana and keep the farmers of Telangana perennially below the poverty line.
MODERNIZATION OF SCHEMES
In Coastal Andhra all the three deltas, namely, Godavari, Krishna and Penna have been modernized. Lot of expenditure has been incurred by the Government towards the same. While Krishna Delta modernization was taken up during the Andhra Government’s tenure and completed in 1956, modernization of other two deltas was carried out in Andhra Pradesh. K.C. Canal was modernized with Japanese assistance recently. However, not even a single modernization scheme in Telangana; either RDS or Sadarmatt has been contemplated by Andhra rulers. It is only recently, RDS is taken up for modernization, as per the Government report.
KC CANAL:
KC Canal is envisaged to draw 39.9 TMC of Tungabhadra waters. Of This quantity 8 TMC has been sacrificed in favour of Srisailam Right Bank Canal. It was expected that the KC Canal would manage the entire envisaged ayacut with 31.9 TMC only. However, in reality each year it is drawing more than 50-60 TMC, illegally, taking the share of Telangana from RDS as explained in earlier paras.
Now, Government unethically decided that 10 TMC of Krishna water would be diverted from Srisailam to KC Canal, so as to compensate the loss, which it has under gone on account of curtailment of its share of 10 TMC of Tungabhadra waters to be supplied to Tungabhadra High Level Canal. However, the Government has accorded approval to divert 5 TMC of water to KC Canal from Srisailam Reservoir, vide G.O. No. 196, dated 31-08-2007. Even on earlier occasions also Krishna Waters were dropped into Nippulavagu, through Pothireddipadu Head Regulator to irrigate KC Canal ayacut, as can be seen from the excerpts from the budget speech of 1987-88 made in Andhra Pradesh Assembly.
(Relevant extract at Annexure-XXXVIII)
It is not understood how Government takes a decision in violation of Bachawat Tribunal. KC Canal is not to draw any Krishna waters as per the award of the Tribunal. But the present Government does everything, at its will, to benefit Rayalaseema area in particular and Andhra area in general, at the cost of Telangana.
SUNKESULA BARRAGE:
Sunkesula anicut was modernized recently with Japanese assistance and now it is a barrage with a storage capacity of 1.2 TMC. It is essentially aimed to serve the KC Canal. In the old anicut there were few openings to release water to the river for the use of downstream users of Telangana region. In the new Barrage Gate No. 30 was reserved for this purpose and therefore, it was supposed to be kept open. Most surprisingly, illegally, the Project Authorities have made arrangements to close the gate on a permanent basis to prevent the water to flow downstream. In spite of several requests made by the downstream villagers that they are suffering for want of drinking water, the authorities did not open the gate, which was required to be done not only from humanitarian angle also from environmental consideration.
This reveals how the Government is showing favours to Andhra areas under pressure and not bothered about the interests of downtrodden and weaklings of Telangana.
JALAYAGNAM – A FARCE
The Jalayagnam, a mighty and prestigious Project undertaken by the Government in the year 2004 proved to be a farce and can be considered as a joke of the decade. When it started, it was announced that 26 Projects out of which 8 would be completed in two years, and the rest 18 would be completed in five years, at a cost of Rs. 46,000 crores and would provide irrigation to a new area of 65 lakh acres. Five years have elapsed. Not even a single Project worth the name is complete, but around Rs. 50,000 crores have been spent on this programme. As if this stunt is not adequate, the Government has increased the number of Projects to 82 and they intend to bring 1 crore acres under irrigation besides stabilizing a few lakh acres.
Except a few schemes like Flood Flow Canal, SRSP stage-II, most of them have no clearances from the Planning Commission. The schemes which have been formulated and are under construction in Krishna basin are dependant on surplus flows (not dependable flows) for which new Tribunal is yet to sanction the allocation. Lot of Projects have the problem of land acquisition. Mega Projects such as Polavaram are facing legal problems and are under the purview of Supreme Court. Inter-State problems affect many projects. Unless Union Government comes to help the Projects, they may not be completed in another 30-40 years. The cost of the 82 Projects is estimated as Rs. 1.76 lakh crores. But this may go up to Rs. 3-4 lakh crores by the time of completion.
The Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) for the year ended 31st March, 2008 has clearly brought out that “the Projects were awarded without prior acquisition of land and this resulted in majority of the Projects on which substantial expenditure has been incurred getting stalled mid-way and non-creation of envisaged irrigation potential”. Further, the Report stated that “ even in respect of the Projects where the irrigation potential is stated to have been created, no supporting ayacut registers, water release schedules, etc., were maintained by the Water Users Associations. Thus, the irrigation potential stated to have been created and utilized could not be verified”
As far as Telangana is concerned the Government has announced a number of lift schemes. A scheme like Pranahitha-Chevella costs around Rs. 40,000 crores. Many Schemes have not yet been investigated and detailed Project reports are not prepared. Even in case of SRSP Stage-II, which is an approved Project by the Planning Commission, Government is confused as to from which source they should feed the canals. Huge power is required to run these lift schemes. The power schemes have not yet commenced. Without supply of power, no body knows how these lift schemes, even if they are completed, would function. Everything is in pell-mell.
POWER PROJECTS UNDER BOT
It is assessed that the power requirement is around 6100 MW to make all the above lift schemes operational. The present generating capacity of the State is 7800 MW. Obviously, the State has to take up a number of power schemes on war footing. Further, the Government have time and again announced that free power will be provided to the farmers for their lift schemes. Now, it is understood that the Government have contemplated to hand over the proposed power projects to private agencies on BOT basis, instead of Genco, Government Agency. It is not understood, how the Government would be able to make available the power in adequate quantity to the farmers, free of cost, if all the power projects are handed over to private agencies. Evidently, the Government is saying something and doing something. It is apprehended, that Government would not be able to provide energy to the farmers either free of cost or at affordable price, if the power schemes are with the private agencies.
Why all this Drama?
Appeasing the Telangana with number of schemes which may not materialize in the near future, for want of funds and energy and Coastal Andhra with Polavaram, which may not see the day of the light, is done only with the sole intention of diverting as much Krishna waters as possible from Srisailam through Pothireddipadu Head Regulator and schemes such as HNSS to the Rayalaseema. In order to compensate the loss due to such act of diversion of dependable flows from Srisailam the downstream users are promised with Pulichinthala, Polavaram and Dummugudem-Nagarjunasagar Tail Pond.
Government is fully aware that they have no funds for execution of the Jalayagnam programme. They also know that unless the projects are cleared by Planning Commission neither funds from Union Government, nor from any external agency would be available. Still Government is making tall promises that Projects namely, Polavaram, Pranahitha-Chevella, Yellampally, Devadula etc. would be brought under National Projects Category. Further, Government is publicizing that it is spending around fifty percent of irrigation funds in Telangana and creating sufficient irrigation potential. Either, spending huge sums (which mostly are pocketed by contractors, politicians and officials) or creating potential is not the answer. The real problem is how much water is delivered and how many acreages are benefited. The Government draws flak on the query.
The Government have come up recently with a full page advertisement in the vernacular Press, ( Annexure – XXXVIIIA ) highlighting their achievements under ‘Jalayagnam’. In the category of the Projects completed, they have listed out 12 Projects through which they have claimed a new ayacut of 1, 31,254 acres besides stabilization of 1, 89, 379 acres. Even, assuming the claims of the Government to be correct, it is seen that in Telangana only one medium scheme namely Gaddena Suddavagu has been completed with an ayacut of just 14,000 acres (against the total of 1,31,254 acres) and two Projects have been completed by means of which around 90,000 acres have been stabilized. In the category of Projects which have been partially completed claims have been made that in Telangana 3, 80,800 acres have been added as new ayacut. The claim of the Government is utterly false, since, neither Alimineti Madhava Reddy Project nor Sriram Sagar Project Phase - II, (the major Projects included in the list) have added any new ayacut so far, since, the distributory system is incomplete and particularly the field channels are not dug so far. The position could be verified from the field visits by the Hon’ble Members of the Committee.
The above acts only show how the Government is trying to mislead the Telangana people by raising false hopes. While dreams of Telangana would remain unfulfilled which the Government is fully aware, the scheme of diverting Godavari waters to Krishna basin and Krishna waters to Rayalaseema would materialize.
Release of G.O.s with Jet Speed:
It has been observed that the Government will not take much time to issue G.O., if the Project is to benefit either Coastal Andhra or Rayalaseema provided they are the pet Projects of the decision maker. The classic examples those can be cited are: 1) Polavaram and 2) Pothireddipadu. In case of Polavaram, the Chief Engineer sends the proposals to the Government on 24-08-2004 and the G.O. is issued sanctioning the Project on 10-09-2004, just within 17 days. In case of Pothireddipadu, the proposals of the Chief Engineer are sent on 20-08-2005 and the Government issued the G.O. approving the scheme on 13-09-2005, just within three weeks. Similar facility was never available to any of the Projects of Telangana.
The apprehensions of formation of Telangana State:
The Government is fully aware that the formation of Telangana state is certain and may materialize at any time. Therefore, they are showing undue haste in completing the Rayalaseema Projects. Infact, the work is going on at Pothireddipadu Head Regulator with jet speed, under search lights and full police protection. These sorts of arrangements are never seen at any other Project. The Members of the Commission may kindly verify the position during their field visit to Pothireddipadu Head Regulator. The Government is not at all bothered whether the Telangana Projects are constructed or not. They only want that before the formation of the new State, all the Projects in Rayalaseema region should get ready, so that they can claim waters on ‘prior use’ basis later.
Telangana a rich region remaining so poor:
In the Memorandum by the Andhra Pradesh Regional Committee on Pochampadu Project it is stated “The soils in Telangana area mostly red and loamy are eminently suited for intensive irrigation… The cultivators, whose main food is rice and main crop paddy, are ever ready to make immediate use of irrigation facilities, when ever the later are made available to them…. Telangana is a deficit in food in spite of the excellent possibilities of irrigation by river water. The River systems in Telangana carry more water…. One does not find many parallels in the Country, where such a rich region is so poor as is the case with Telangana” (Extract vide Annexure-XXXIX). In the same memorandum Dr. M. Chenna Reddy, the President Member on Sub Committees of Planning and Development of Andhra Pradesh Regional Committee explained that while in State like Punjab, there was more than 50% irrigation by Canals, in Telangana only 2% was by Canals, although the capacity of the rivers of Telangana was more than that of the rivers in the Punjab. (Extract vide Annexure-XXXX).
The U.O. Note of Planning and Local Administration Department of 12-01-1960 has clearly brought out that there was a gap of 12.67% in the percentage of gross area irrigated to total available cultivable area between the two regions of Andhra and Telangana up to 1955-56 (before merger). This gap has increased to 18.08% after the development of various schemes proposed in the first and second five year plans. (Vide Annexure-XXXXI). In the 19th report of Sub Committee on Planning of Andhra Pradesh Regional Committee it is stated that “there is much difference in proportion of expenditures of both the regions”.
(Extract vide Annexure-XXXXII).
From the above, it is evident that from the beginning the Telangana region was neglected intentionally, by not sanctioning the Projects, by not providing funds and delaying the Projects. The importance of irrigation to Telangana was realized long time back as can be seen from the report of the Indian Irrigation Commission of 1901-03, page 238-quoted below
“General Conclusions: - with reference then to the general question of the utility of the irrigation in Hyderabad it may be said that in the Telangana and certain portions of the Carnatic tracts, which comprised more than half the total area of Hyderabad, irrigation is vitally essential to the well-being of the people and to the general prosperity of the State and that the soil is suited to it and the people are eager for it…..”. (Extract vide Annexure-XXXXIII)
Conclusions:
Telangana was a State before 1956 under the name of Hyderabad. Two mighty Rivers having catchments of 68.5% (Krishna) and 79% (Godavari) flow through Telangana. The soils are excellent and suitable for cultivation being red and loamy. The cultivators are hard working and are ever ready to make use of irrigation facilities. Having such excellent resources, one would wonder why this region remained backward even after 55 years of merger with Andhra, which is prosperous in agriculture, because of Canal network. This leads to a simple conclusion that this region has not remained backward on its own but purposely kept backward by the vested interests.
The merger which was done against the wishes of Telanganaites was because of vast water resources available in Krishna and Godavari. The love of Andhra towards Telangana is not borne out of affection because of language or culture, only because of excellent water resources amongst many other virtues, which would create a mass wealth. One TMC of water would easily fetch around 4 crores in each season. Telangana, in integrated Andhra Pradesh State has lost thousands of TMCs of Krishna and Godavari waters by the unethical, illegal and other dubious means adopted by Andhra rulers. There is no other way to bring out Telangana from the clutches of Andhra and place it on of the glory and prosperity except by creating a separate State.
One of the major grievances of the people of Telangana has, all along been, and continues to be, the raw deal meted out to the region regarding the allocation and utilization of river waters. It is, however, not an unexpected development. It has happened as was feared at the time of merging Telangana with Andhra. The States Reorganization Commission also noted this fact by observing,
When plans for future development are taken into account, Telangana fears that the claims of this area may not receive adequate consideration in Vishalandhra. The Nandikonda and Kushtapuram (Godavari) projects are, for example, among the most important which Telangana or country as a whole has undertaken. Irrigation in the coastal deltas of these two great rivers is, however, also being planned. Telangana, therefore, does not wish to lose its present independent rights in relation to the utilization of the waters of the Krishna and the Godavari.
(SRC Report: Para 377)
Inspite of all such warning signals from the SRC and the resistance of the people, the Telangana region was forcibly merged with the Andhra State, with an assurance of justice and fair play. But, as feared, Telangana became a victim of broken promises. On the irrigation front, several major and medium irrigation projects planned by the then Government of Hyderabad were either abandoned or mutilated or kept in unending abeyance. And the consequence is the present scenario. It was aptly summarized by the Krishna Water Disputes Tribunal (KWDT), popularly known as Bachawat Tribunal, constituted by the Government of India in early 1970s for allocation of Krishna Waters between the riparian states of Maharashtra, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh. The Tribunal observed:
The area (Telangana) which we are considering for irrigation formed part of Hyderabad State, and had there been no division of that State there were better chances for the residents of this area to get irrigation facilities in Mahabubnagar District. We are of the opinion that this area should not be deprived of the benefit of irrigation on account of the reorganization of States.
(KWDT Report:Page178)
What more evidence is needed for the damage done to the Telangana region in the field of irrigation because of its merger with Andhra?
More Details can be seen hereunder:
1) Projects Abandoned:
Several Projects contemplated by the erstwhile Government of Hyderabad, some of which were under execution, aimed at irrigating several lakhs of acres were abandoned. They are;
• Tungabhadra (LBC) Extension;
• Bheema Project;
• Upper Krishna (RBC Extension);
• Godavari Multipurpose Project;
• Inchampally Project;
• Devanur Project.
2) Projects Truncated and Mutilated:
• SRSP: Survey made in 1959. Foundation laid in 1963 by Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru. Even after fifty years, the progress is limping and the work is yet to be completed;
• Flood Flow
Canal: Survey was done in 1980s. Cleared in 1996. Construction started in 2004. Progress of work very slow; yet to be completed;
• Pranahita: Surveyed in 1970. Inter State Agreement arrived at in 1978. Work not yet started, even after 32 years;
• Lendi: Agreement with Maharashtra Government reached in 1975. The Dam has already been completed by Maharashtra Government. Canal work yet to be taken up by the Andhra Pradesh Government.
• Lower
Penganga: Agreement with Maharashtra reached in 1975. Work not yet commenced, because of non allocation of funds by Andhra Pradesh.
• Yellampally: Sanctioned in 1997. Work progressing at snails pace.
• Davadula: Sanctioned in 2001. Announced to be completed in 18 months. It is a decade by now, but not even 1/3rd of the work is completed;
• Jurala: Construction started in 1976. Work is yet to be completed, even after 34 years.
• Bheema LI: Survey was done in 1983. CWC clearances obtained. The work is yet to be completed.
• Kalwakurthy: Survey was done in 1984. Work commenced in 2004. A substantial part of the Project is yet to be completed.
• Nettempadu: It was sanctioned in 1991 but work on it commenced after 13 years, Project is still incomplete;
• SLBC Tunnel: Sanctioned in 1981. 29 years have rolled by, the work done so far is not even 10%;
• AMRP: Work started in 1995. Even after fifteen years, progress is still limping;
3) Neglect of Projects inherited from Hyderabad State:
• Nizamsagar: The ayacut reduced from 2.75 lakh to 1.00 lack acres
• RDS: Contemplated to irrigate 87, 500 acres. But not more than 30,000 acres are irrigated
• Kadam: Ayacut reduced from 68,000 acres to 30,000 acres
• Upper Manair: It is now actually a dead Project
• Koilsagar: Contemplated capacity is 3.9 TMC. Actual utilization is only 1.6 TMC.
• Dindi: Contemplated capacity is 3.7 TMC. Actually utilization is only 1.6 TMC.
• Ghanpur anicut: Designed to irrigate 30,000 acres, but catering to needs of less then 10,000 acres.
4) Regional Bias:
• Sriramsagar Project (SRSP) on Godavari and Jurala Project on Krishna are the only two major projects that are meant exclusively for Telangana. They were started decades ago, but are yet to be completed, because of the niggardly attitude of the State Government regarding the funding of these projects.
Whereas, work on Projects taken up much later in Andhra area is progressing with jet speed. For instance: Pulichinthala Project and Pothireddipadu Head Regulator.
• Telugu Ganga Project on the right bank of Srisailam Project (Andhra area) has already taken a massive shape.
On the contrary the SLBC tunnel on the left bank of Srisailam Project (Telangana area) is yet to come out of its very preliminary stage.
• SRSP Stage-II and Flood Flow Canal Projects in Telangana area have been given all clearances by the Government of India and the CWC. But the progress of work is very slow, due to inadequate allocation of funds.
Whereas the work on Projects in the Andhra area which do not have proper clearances from the Government of India and the CWC is progressing with enormous speed. Projects like Polavaram and Pothireddipadu Head Regulator come under this category.
• A number of Projects have been taken up in Andhra area by utilizing regenerated flow of water.
But no such project is contemplated in Telangana.
• Figures are deliberately inflated while showing the areas irrigated under the projects in Telangana. For instance, SRSP is able to irrigate only about 5 lakh acres, but the Government claims it as 10 lakh acres.
On the contrary, in the Krishna and Godavari Deltas of Andhra area, extent of land irrigated is always far more than what the Government shows.
The Stark Realities:
Telangana is encircled by two major rivers of south India i.e., Krishna and Godavari. Within the state of Andhra Pradesh, 68.5% of catchment area of river Krishna and 69% of catchment area of river Godavari are in the Telangana region. In addition, most of the tributaries of these rivers traverse its length and breadth. If waters of these rivers flowing through the region are utilized, almost every acre of cultivable land available in Telangana could be provided with assured irrigation facilities and every village could be provided with assured drinking water facilities. But Telangana has been denied of its rightful share in the river waters by the successive governments for over more than half a century, irrespective of the political parties and leaders in power.
River Krishna
While determining the share of waters of river Krishna among the three riparian states, i.e. Maharashtra, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh, the Bachawat Tribunal allocated 811 TMC of water to Andhra Pradesh, besides the freedom to use surplus water. The allocation of water among different regions of the State has, however, been on the basis of Projects considered by the Tribunal. If catchment area is taken as the principal criterion for allocation of waters between different regions of the state, as is normally done between different states of the country, Telangana should get 68.5% of the 811 TMC. If cultivable areas in the river basin, rainfall, subsoil levels of water, backwardness of the region etc. also are taken into account, Telangana region would be entitled to not less than 70% of the total quantum of water allocated to the state. But the allocation made for the projects in the Telangana region was only around 35%. If the actual utilization of water is taken into account, it is only about 10 to 11%. As a result, out of 811 TMC of assured water, besides another 100 to 150 TMC of surplus water of the River Krishna utilized in the state of Andhra Pradesh, Telangana accounts hardly for 70 to 100 TMC on an average.
Consequently, out of nearly 35 lakh acres being irrigated under the projects built on river Krishna, hardly 5 lakh acres are benefited in the Telangana region and the rest in the other regions.
River Godavari
The Bachawat Tribunal allocated 1480 TMC of Godavari water to Andhra Pradesh; and half of this water is yet to be utilized. The Coastal Andhra region has been the major beneficiary of the water already utilized. Under the Sir Arthur Cotton Barrage in Dhawaleswaram alone more than 10 lakh acres of land is getting irrigation facilities with nearly the same acreage in the second crop. But in the Telangana region, the area irrigated with the Godavari waters is not even 5 lakh acres. Therefore, the people of this region demand that the remaining water still available in Godavari should be utilized mostly, if not solely, for the benefit of Telangana region. The government has been making only promises, day in and day out on this score, but nothing has been done significantly so far, and is not likely to be done in near future. The real intention of the ruling sections is to divert the untapped water of river Godavari to Coastal Andhra and Rayalaseema regions by interlinking Godavari and Krishna Rivers, thereby depriving the Telangana region of its due share in the Godavari waters as well.
Regional Disparities
Because of the factors enumerated above, the benefit of irrigation through the canal system under major and medium irrigation projects is accruing substantially, i.e. around 82%, to the Coastal Andhra region, while the share of Telangana is just abut18%.
While this is the scenario with regard to canal irrigation, the situation regarding the other two sources of irrigation i.e. tanks, as also wells, is equally bad.
Tank Irrigation
At the time of formation of Andhra Pradesh the area irrigated under a vast net work of tanks in the Telangana region was more than 12 lakh acres. This net work of tanks was developed over a period of four to five centuries. After the formation Andhra Pradesh, the state Government claims to have spent, during the last 54 years, several thousands of crores of rupees for the maintenance and development of minor irrigation facilities. Therefore, the area under Tank Irrigation should have substantially increased. But it is going down steeply year after year and now stands at hardly at 5 lakh acres.
It has happened so, because the silt accumulated in the tanks is not removed, breached tanks are not repaired and some of the tanks that were operational have been deliberately damaged to promote urbanization in and around the major towns and cities especially the capital city of Hyderabad. In this process small and marginal farmers became helpless, abandoned cultivation and sold their lands in distress, at a throw away price, to the rich migrants from Coastal Andhra. These lands became a goldmine for the migrant settlers to do the real estate business. Development of areas in the name of Film City, Hi-Tech City, East City and so on has thrown the local people not only out of their vocations, but also out of their homes.
Well Irrigation
In this situation the farmers of Telangana are left with only one alternative i.e., well irrigation. But the well irrigation has many disadvantages as compared to canal irrigation. Canal irrigation is ensured by the government by spending on construction of dams, digging of canals and supplying water to the fields every season. The entire cost is borne by the government i.e. spending tax-payers money. In return the farmer pays about 200 to 250 rupees per acre per annum as water charges. It is extremely negligible when compared to the huge amounts spent by the government. This is necessary to support agriculture sector in any region or in any state for that matter. Therefore, no one will grudge this. But the same facility is not extended to a majority of farmers in Telangana who depend mostly on well irrigation. The farmer will have to pay from his pocket for sinking well and for buying pump-set etc. In addition, he is required to pay power tariff which he is, however, exempted from for the time being. But there is no guarantee of is continuance in future. He has to also incur huge expenses on getting the water pumps repaired as they get frequently damaged because of erratic fluctuations in voltage. As a result, a farmer in the Telangana region depending on well irrigation is compelled to spend huge amounts on recurring expenses in addition to capital investment on sinking well and installing pump-set. It is, thereby, a self financed scheme of development, whereas, most of the farmers in Coastal Andhra get water at a heavily subsidised rate of 200 to 250 rupees per acre per annum besides not spending anything on the infrastructure. It is evidently a public funded development.
How can and how long this unjust disparity can be tolerated?
The Jala Yagnam:
The policies being pursued by the present government of the State are adding fuel to the fire. The so called Jala Yagnam is only a mask to cover the evil designs, causing further damage to Telangana. The controversial Pothireddipadu Project is aimed at illegally diverting Krishna waters to the non-basin area in the Rayalaseema region, without meeting the legitimate requirements of the Krishna basin area in Telangana. Similarly, the unauthorized construction of Polavaram Project is essentially aimed at siphoning of Godavari waters to Coastal Andhra. It is further planned to stretch the benefit to outside Godavari basin in that region, thereby, depriving the Telangana region of its rightful share in the Godavari waters as well.
The propaganda indulged in, day in and day out, by the State Government regarding the number of acres proposed to be given irrigation facilities in Telangana, under the so called Jala Yagnam is a travesty of truth. It has issued an order according to which bulk of the area in the Telangana region would be covered by the sprinkler and drip irrigation system. The government maintains that under this system one TMC of water would be enough to irrigate between 15 to 20 thousand acres of land in Telangana. But, the same government maintains that in the other regions, especially the Coastal Andhra, one TMC of water can irrigate only 3700 acres. The State Government expects the world to believe this untenable and fantastic proposition. All these gimmicks are being resorted to side track the basic issue of determining fair share of Telangana in the allocation river waters.
The ongoing debate about irrigation facilities, especially on utilization of river waters in Andhra Pradesh has, therefore, many dimensions – economic, political, moral, legal and also emotional. It has the potential to determine the future of the State itself.
(Detailed notes regarding the construction of irrigation projects in Telangana region and a few important projects of Andhra region, which have bearing on Telangana right from the inception of the State of Andhra Pradesh are appended.)
THE PROPOSAL OF ERSTWHILE HYDERABAD GOVERNMENT
The Hyderabad Government planned to provide irrigation for around 70 lakh acres to Telangana Region through grandiose projects such as Tungabhadra project (left bank canal), Upper Krishna project (Right Bank canal), Bheema Project and Nandikonda Project (Nagarjunasagar) all in Krishna Basin and Godavari Valley project, Inchampally Project and Devanur Project in Godavari Basin. All these projects have either been shelved or curtained. The Bachawat Tribunal on Krishna Waters, in its report categorically mentioned that “Had there been no division of the State (Hyderabad), there were better chances for the residents of this area to get irrigation facilities”. (Annexure-I)
A. Bachawat Tribunal’s observations with reference to specific projects:
1. Extension of the Tungabhadra Left Bank Canal to Andhra Pradesh:
In 1947, the Hyderabad Government proposed the extension of the left bank low level canal in order to irrigate 1, 20,000 acres in Gadwal and Alampur taluqs in Telangana with an annual utilization of 19.2 TMCs. Unfortunately, this request made by Government of Andhra Pradesh to include the project for allocation was not conceded by the Tribunal on the ground that the Project was not accepted by the Govt. of India for inclusion in the second five year plan before 1st Nov. 1956. The Government of Andhra Pradesh should have put forth their arguments more forcefully before the Tribunal and seen to it that the claim was made acceptable. There is a mention in the report of the Tribunal itself that “the council of Andhra Pradesh claimed relief under section 108 (2) of the state Reorganization act, 1956 only and did not argue that Andhra Pradesh was entitled to the relief under section 107 & 108 (1) of the act or under any other provision of law”. (Annexure-II)
2. Extension of a Project on the Bheema in Mysore to Andhra Pradesh:
The Hyderabad Government contemplated construction of the Bheema Reservoir Project in Gulbarga district for irrigating 4 lakh acres in Gulbarga and Mahabubnagar districts. After 1956, the Karnataka Government proposed two schemes namely Bheema Lift Irrigation Scheme and Bheema Irrigation Project at different locations in lieu of the earlier proposal made by the Hyderabad Government. Government of Andhra Pradesh made a request to the Tribunal that they may be permitted to construct the Bheema Project at the same old place namely Tangadgi in Mysore with proviso to make extension of canal to Mahabuubnagar district in Andhra Pradesh to irrigate 3,80,000 acres with an annual utilization of 100.7 TMC of water. Again, in this case also the Tribunal did not accede to the request of the proposal of the Government of Andhra Pradesh on the ground that the Bheema Project was neither taken in hand by the Government nor included in the second five year plan before the 1st Nov. 1956.
3. EXTENSION OF UPPER KRISHNA PROJECT:
The Hyderabad Government proposed construction of Upper Krishna Project for irrigating Gadwal and Alampur taluqs of Telangana and other areas in Hyderabad State. The Project would have benefited to the extent of 1, 50,000 acres with an annual utilization of 54.4 TMC of water. In this case too, the Tribunal did not accept the proposal of the State Government on the plea that the Project was neither taken in hand, nor included in the second five year plan before the 1st Nov.1956.
Thus, 174.30 TMC of Krishna Waters through the three Projects cited above were deprived to the Telangana Region of Andhra Pradesh, because of casual approach adopted and the non serious arguments put forward by the council of the Andhra Pradesh before the Hon’ble Bachawat Tribunal. Had these 174 TMC of precious waters been made available to the region in gravity manner, the Mahabubnagar district would have flourished as one of the richest districts of the State, producing surplus food to cater to needs of the other parts of the country. Today, because of denial of rightful share of their waters the district has turned as a perennial famine and drought stricken area. Around 14 lakh people migrate to other parts of the country in search of employment annually.
4. JURALA PROJECT:
The Bachawat Tribunal has made the following observations in respect of Jurala Project.
“The Sate of Andhra Pradesh, no doubt, has been allotted enough water for historical reasons, but still Telangana part of the state Andhra Pradesh stands in need of irrigation. The area which we are considering for irrigation formed part of Hyderabad state and had there been no division of that state there were better chances for the residents of this area to get irrigation facilities in Mahabubnagar district. We are of the opinion that this area should not be deprived of the benefit of the irrigation on account of the reorganization of states. If properly managed, Jurala Project stage-I can operate by utilizing about 18 TMC. We, therefore, think it proper that 17.84 TMC of water at 75% dependability should be allocated for stage-I of the Project.
If it turns out that the Jurala irrigation Project is not a practical proposition, it is expected that 17.84 TMC would be utilized by the State Andhra Pradesh elsewhere in Telangana Region. We cannot conceive that the State of Andhra Pradesh having put forward the claim for allocation of water for Telangana region and having received an allocation for use in that region would use it elsewhere outside that region” (Annexure-III)
Thus, it can be seen that the allocation of 17.84 TMC to the Jurala Project has been purely a benevolent act on the part of the Hon’ble Tribunal as a part compensation in lieu of the huge loss sustained by the Telangana to the extent of 174 TMC due to the inefficient and callous attitude of the Government of Andhra Pradesh in not protecting the legitimate rights of the Telangana region accrued to them under the State Reorganization Act.
5. RAJOLIBAND DIVERSION SCHEME. (RDS):
An agreement was entered in to between the Governments of the Madras and Hyderabad in June, 1944 in regard to scheme for the partial utilization of the Tungabhadra waters. As per this, the Rajolibanda Canal proposed by Hyderabad will be treated on an equal status with that of an existing Kurnool-Cuddapha canal (KC Canal). Further, it stated in the agreement that at the point of diversion of the Rajolibanda Canal the natural flow will be divided half and half between Madras and Hyderabad. (Annexure-IV)
Thus, it is evident that the allocation to the KC Canal and RDS Canal should have been equal. However, for the reasons best known to the Government of Andhra Pradesh they have not strongly put forward the claim that both these Projects should be treated on equal footing, with the result the Tribunal allocated 39.9 TMC to KC Canal and 17.1 TMC to RDS Canal. Out of the 17.1 TMC the Karnataka’s share is 1.2 TMC and the rest (15.9 TMC) is the entitlement of the AP. (Mahabubnagar District of Telangana). (Annexure-V)
In reality, the Mahabubnagar district never realized more than 6-7 TMC against their share of 15.9 TMC. A perusal of the record of the utilizations of the Project reveals the facts (Annexure-VI). The Government on several occasions admitted openly that the main reason for shortfall in supply to RDS Ayacut is that there are a few construction sluices (Openings) that remained unplugged in the RDS anicut built across the Tungabhadra River. (Annexure-VIA) The waters that were due to the RDS Canal pass through these unplugged holes of anicut downstream to the Sunkesula anicut to serve the farmers of the KC Canal. The KC Canal farmers are reaping the benefits of these additional waters that legitimately belong to the RDS farmers and made available to them due to the inefficiency and inability of the Government of Andhra Pradesh in not plugging the illegal construction sluices. Some efforts, which were made in the past to plug these holes in the anicut were made futile by the brutal force used by the KC Canal farmers. The net result is that while the KC Canal farmers are enjoying the waters of Tungabhadra much more than their legal share, the poor farmers of the Mahabubnagar district stand to loose. This is a classic example to show the partial attitude of the Government of Andhra Pradesh and the discriminatory approach adopted by them towards the Telangana region. A visit to RDS anicut and Sunkesula Barrage by the Committee would reveal the facts.
APPORTIONMENT OF KRISHNA WATERS:
The Hon’ble Bachawat Tribunal has apportioned the Krishna Waters among the three States namely Maharashtra, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh. The apportionment was based on the principle of ‘priority of appropriation’ and as well as the reasonable requirement of the Projects of each State. Based on these principles the distribution was 800 TMCto Andhra Pradesh, 700 TMC to Karnataka and 560 TMC to Maharashtra.
The region wise share in the allocated quantity with reference to the project wise allocation and catchments area of Krishna basin lying in the three regions of Andhra Pradesh are as under:
Sl.No: Rayalaseema Coastal Andhra Telangana: Total:
1 Catchments area of Krishna basin lying in the region
(SQ. Miles/Percentage)
5414
18.39%
3860
13.11%
20.167
68.50% 29.441
100%
2 Allocation as per Krishna Water Disputes Tribunal Award (TMC./Percentage) 133.70
16.71% 388.44
48.56% 277.86
34.73% 800
100%
3 Utilization of water outside the
Krishna basin
(TMC./Percentage) 53.60
40.1% 362.60
93.33% Nil
Nil 416.20
52.02%
Note: 33 TMC of evaporation losses of Srisailam Hydro-Electric project allocated equally i.e., 11 TMC for each region.
Source: Report of the Expert Committee on utilization of River Waters in Andhra Pradesh Krishna River Basin – Vol.1 relevant extract (Annexure-VII)
From the above, it is seen that the Tribunal has allocated 34.73% of Krishna waters against its due share of 68.5%, if the allocation is based on catchment area. As per principles laid down by the International Institute of Law (Helsinki Rules) the water allocations amongst basin states are based on the following parameters with suitable weightage to each one of them: (Relevant extract at Annexure-VIIA)
1. Catchment area & Rainfall
2. Population
3. Cultivable area
4. Backwardness
5. Availability of other sources of water
6. Prior users
Had Telangana been a separate State, the claim of Telangana would have been not less than 548 TMC. What has been allocated by the Tribunal (277.86 TMC) is just half of the rightful share that it is entitled to. It is painfully noted that Telangana region is deprived of even this meager quantity that has been allocated to it through discriminatory, unlawful and unethical acts of the State Government as revealed in the subsequent paras.
DISCRIMINATORY ACTS OF STATE
1. JURALA PROJECT:
In order to utilize 17.84 TMC allocated to the project by the Tribunal, the dam has been constructed to store 11.94 TMC. Unfortunately, the reservoir has never been filled up; up to FRL. The only reason for not filling up the reservoir up to FRL (Full Reservoir Level) is the nonpayment of sum amounting to Rs. 44 crores to the State of Karnataka to evacuate people from submerged area. The callous attitude of the Government in not paying the dues to Karnataka has made a mockery of the reservoir remaining getting practically half empty. (only, during the recent times the Jurala Reservoir is reported to have been filled up) Though, the Project has commenced way back in 1980, still it remains incomplete. The water could not be utilized fully an account of non-completion of the distributary system. The pathetic part is that the Jurala waters are being utilized in the ayacut of RDS so as to benefit 30, 000 acres of tail end ayacut, which has been denied the supply of Tungabhadra waters, for the reasons that have already been explained in earlier paras, vide G.O. No.77, dated 15-04-1999 (copy enclosed at Annexure-VIII) Further the Jurala waters are also transferred to Kurnool area of Rayalaseema occasionally, which is nothing but violation of the stipulation of the Tribunal’s directions.
2. RDS:
As if the sorrows of RDS perpetuated by KC Canal farmers are not sufficient a mini hydel project namely Swarna is under execution just upstream of the RDS anicut. The waters that will be used for generating power at the Swarna Mini Hydel Project will deprive the already reduced flows of the RDS Canal since; the outflows of the hydel plant, instead of joining RDS Canal would directly join the main river down stream of the RDS anicut. The Government of Andhra Pradesh have kept a cool attitude towards the whole affair when the plant was commenced for construction and when the farmers of Mahabubnagar district agitated, the Government preferred to be silent. The matter was taken up by one Mr. Atmalinga Reddy before the Supreme Court in the year 2008. The Supreme Court has found fault with the State Government and observed that “The State of Andhra Pradesh, in fairness, ought to have placed all facts subsequent to filing of the counter affidavit, when the matter was heard by this Court. The State, however, failed to do so.” Now the matter is before the Brijesh Kumar Tribunal. (Annexure-IX).
3. NAGARJUNA SAGAR:
The Nagarjuna Sagar Project (Nandikonda Project) earlier was taken up for execution on the basis of joint report 1954 of the erstwhile Andhra and Hyderabad States. As per this report, a total of 20.99 lakh acres was to be irrigated. The Left Bank Canal which serves Telangana and Andhra was to cater to 7.95 lakh acres of Telangana and 2.05 lakh acres of Andhra area. The water that was be utilized in Telangana was to be 161 TMC and 25 TMC for Andhra region. However, the Planning Commission, which sanctioned the Project in the year 1956, had curtailed the ayacut of Telangana to 6.6 lakh acres for which utilization was fixed as 111 TMC. Similarly, the ayacut for the Andhra was fixed as 1.3 lakh areas and the utilization sanctioned was 21 TMC. The Government Andhra Pradesh has made several manipulations during course of execution of the Project and finally brought down the ayacut of Telangana to 5.32 lakh acres through gravity for which 90.2 TMC would be utilized and 0.70 lakh acres through lifts by utilizing 9.8 TMC. Thus, a total of 100 TMC is shown to be allocated to Telangana by ruthlessly curtailing the legitimate share of Telangana by 11 TMC (and same was added to the Andhra’s share and with the result the utilization for Andhra has been increased to 32.25 TMC and ayacut also was increased to 3.8 lakh acres). Thus, a clear gap of 58,000 acres ayacut in the share of Telangana has resulted. In order to make up the gap ayacut the State Government directed that at a later date this could be brought under irrigation, however, no extra water was allocated for this and this was to be managed by internal saving. The intention of the Government was to bring more areas in Nuziveedu and Tiruvur of Krishna district of Andhra under the cultivation at the cost of Telangana. (Relevant extract at Annexure-X).
The above shows how the State Government is inclined to promote the interests of the Andhra area at cost of causing sufferings and loss to the poor farmers of Telangana. When the matter was raised by Hon’ble Members of the Committee on Estimates of the Fifth Legislative Assembly the reply of the Government was totally unconvincing as could be seen from the relevant extracts of Annexure-XI.
Another mischief played by the Government of Andhra Pradesh was to drop the left bank canal in to the Palair Reservoir and taking the off-take point at a much lower level than the FRL of the Palair Reservoir. The Hon’ble Members of Committee on Estimates have observed that “by letting the main canal into Palair River the level seems to be reduced by five feet and also the off-take is again reduced by eight feet which also results in considerable reduction in the ayacut beyond” The reply of the Government is so astonishing that the Government instead of rectifying its wrong deeds have tried to get shield by making a statement that “any change at this juncture would create complications lower down where major works are in progress and they would get effected”. (Relevant extracts at Annexure-XII) It is also surprising that the Hon’ble Committee on Estimates have accepted the Government’s reply. Instead of pulling the Government to rectify the damage and fixing the responsibility for such an intentional, negligent and callous act of the concerned, chose to remain silent.
The Andhra Engineers working on Left Bank Canal investigation brought out a strange argument that sufficient ayacut in Telangana was not available and the Government have accepted their plea. Hence, Andhra ayacut has been increased.
During Telangana Agitation in the year 1969, the Government reversed its stand and ordered that the original ayacut in Andhra and Telangana be restored. As the agitation calmed down, the Government again took a ‘U’ turn and reduced the Telangana ayacut. Even if there is no ayacut available under gravity irrigation, same could have been transferred to lift irrigation and the total ayacut could be kept as per the original plan. Where was the need to reduce the allocation of Telangana and transfer the same to Andhra? This is a clear case of discrimination shown against Telangana.
(Relevant Government Orders enclosed vide Annexure-XIII)
When the Hon’ble Members of the Estimate Committee desired that one lakh acres should be brought under Lift Irrigation to Telangana as per the original plan, the Government went on explaining their difficulty in implementing the suggestion and stated that they may be permitted to bring only 50,000 acres under Lift. (Relevant abstracts enclosed vide Annexure-XIV)
Discrimination against the Telangana Farmers:
From the beginning, the Right Bank Canal of Nagarjunasagar serving Andhra area is being shown preference over the Left Bank Canal, which serves part of Andhra area besides Telangana. Whether it is a matter of allotment of funds or designing the size of Canals, fixing the levels of the canals or releasing the water from the reservoir etc., the partiality is clearly visible. The expenditure figures reflecting in the form of potential that has been reported in the annual budget of Government of Andhra Pradesh for some of the years prove the point (Extract enclosed vide Annexure - XXV). The variations in sizes of the Left and Right Bank Canals, though, the designed discharges are equal, would also vindicate the same. The interesting point to note is, in case of Right Bank Canal the discharge is reduced from 21,000 cusecs to 11,000 cusecs at the time of execution, The bed width of the Canal has been increased to 241 ft from the designed bed width of 155 ft, where as in case of Left Bank Canal while the discharge is same i.e. 11,000 cusecs both at design and execution stages, but the bed width as executed is reduced to 95 ft from 134 ft, the designed bed width. (Figures enclosed vide Annexure -XXVI). The field visit to the Nagarjunasagar Dam by the Hon’ble members of the Commission would show that the reported and actual levels of the outlet sluices of both the Canals are at variance.
It is a matter of pain and anguish to bring the fact to the kind notice of the Commission that though the lift schemes are existing and operating on Left as well as the Right Bank Canals, yet, the farmers of Left Bank Canal depending on lifts are required to pay the electricity charges, whereas, the farmers enjoying the lift arrangements on Right Bank Canal are not to pay any thing, since, the Government bears the charges (vide Annexure - XXVIA). The different treatment meted out to the Telangana farmer’s vis-à-vis Andhra farmers shows how the Government of Andhra Pradesh is not at all impartial.
Construction of Nagarjuna Sagar Tail Pond:
The tail pond reservoir at the toe of the Nagarjunasagar Dam was to be constructed long time back, since it carried the necessary clearances from the Central Government in the year 1972. The tail pond is to capture flows used for generation of electricity flowing through the penstocks and pump the same back to the reservoir through reversible turbines. The Government intentionally did not construct the tail pond. Instead, it went on producing the power and wasting the flows downstream to the river. Many a times, these flows could not be utilized by the Krishna Delta farmers. In the name of generation of power, the authorities supplied water to the Krishna Delta farmers in quantities more than their requirement, detrimental to the interests of farmers of Left and Right Bank Canal. It is now only, the tail pond has been taken up for construction, however, with a different objective. The intention is to facilitate the diversion of Godavari waters to Krishna basin using the tail pond reservoir. The hidden agenda of the Government is obvious. It wants to replace the releases from Nagarjunasagar to the farmers of Left Bank Canal fully and Right Bank Canal partially by Godavari waters, so that the waters saved could be stored in Srisailam reservoir to be utilized by the Rayalaseema and other projects in Prakasham district. The hurry in which the tail pond is taken up now is a clear indication of the strategy/mal-intention of the Government to deprive Telangana of its legitimate share of Godavari as well as Krishna waters.
Water supply to twin cities of Hyderabad & Secunderabad:
The twin cities lie in Krishna basin. The Bachawat Tribunal has made an allocation of 3.9 TMC towards this item. Since the demand of twin cities increased leaps and bounds, additional supplies from Manjeera, a tributary to Godavari were also made available. To cope up with the further demand, the Government have taken up Krishna water supply scheme to augment water supplies to the Twin Cities in three phases, 5.5 TMC in each phase. While the first phase is over, the second phase is nearing completion. The Government has suddenly reversed its stand and decided to stop the implementation of the third phase of the sanctioned programme. Based on a typically strange argument that the needs of Capital City would be enormous in the coming years and the Krishna would not be able to meet the requirements, the Government has decided to bring the water from far location on River Godavari at huge cost of Rs. 3375 crores covering a distance of 240 Km and involving a huge lift, when implementing Krishna Phase-III scheme would have cost only Rs. 850 crores and the distance involved is just 110 Km. All this to see that the Krishna waters are stored in the Srisailam reservoir to be utilized for irrigation out side the Krishna basin. After meeting the requirements of Rayalaseema and Prakasam district, then only the balance could be utilized in Telangana and other downstream users. This is the sole intention of the Government.
Inter-se priority of utilization of Krishna water:
As per the Bachawat Tribunal’s directions all the projects that have been included in the category –I and Category-II mentioned in their report would get same priority in utilization of Krishna waters (Relevant abstracts enclosed vide Annexure -XV). However, the Government of Andhra Pradesh has always preferred to release waters to the Krishna Delta on priority over the Nagarjunasagar ayacutdars. The matter was brought to the notice of the Government several times and this was one of the issues of consideration that were raised by Sri K. Chandrasekhar Rao, the then Union Minister for Labour and Employment before the then Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh in a meeting held in the presence of Sri Digvijay Sing the then AICC General Secretary and Incharge of Andhra Pradesh. The Government did not change their attitude even after explaining them the direction of Tribunal. Now, the same procedure is adhered to. The Government have been maintaining that Krishna Delta farmers are prior users and therefore, they should be given preference to Sagar beneficiaries. If the same argument is extended, the ayacutdars of Alamatti would have to wait till Nagarjunasagar Ayacutdars get their waters fully. This is a clear violation of the verdict of the Bachawat Tribunal and such acts are detrimental to the interests of Telangana region.
SRISAILAM PROJECT:
This Project constructed upstream of Nagarjunasagar is to act as a balancing reservoir for Nagarjunasagar, besides, producing Hydel power. The Project is prohibited to serve irrigation as specified in the Tribunal report at several places. (Relevant abstracts enclosed vide Annexure-XVI). However, the Government of Andhra Pradesh through sheer manipulations converted the reservoir in to an irrigation reservoir gradually. The reason as to why the Tribunal permitted utilization of 33 TMC towards evaporation loss in this reservoir was because it was basically a reservoir to serve irrigation purposes downstream. This facility was denied to Government of Maharashtra in respect of Koyna reservoir, since the waters of Koyna after producing the power would join the Arabian Sea and not utilized for irrigation at all as in case of Srisailam. (Relevant abstracts enclosed vide Annexure-XVII) The Government never bothered about the directions of the Hon’ble Tribunal and went on violating all the provisions and stipulations of the Tribunal in a phased manner to suit their convenience. The list of Irrigation Projects directly depending flows from Sirsailam Reservoir (are shown at Annexure-XVIII).
Pothireddipadu Head Regulator:
Pothireddipadu Head Regulator constructed in the foreshore of the Srisailam reservoir in the year 1983 envisaged to divert dependable flows of 15 TMC meant for water supply to Chennai through Telugu Ganga Project and 19 TMC for Srisailam Right Bank Canal (SRBC) and 29 TMC of surplus flows to be carried through the Telugu Ganga to benefit the farmers of Kurnool and Kadapa. Though, the Central Government has not given its sanction to Telugu Ganga Project, State has continued to spend huge sums on this project, on which a number of balancing reservoirs to store surplus flows are constructed. The details of these are at Annexure –XIX.
Not content with the diversion of these surplus flows the Government have resorted to divert the dependable flows in the garb of surplus flows to the Penna Basin and other areas of Andhra with a crude strategy to benefit Andhra region at the cost of Telangana.
As per the principles of International Law Institute and the National Water Policy and the observations of the Bachawat Tribunal, (extracts at Annexure-XX), the areas lying within the basin would be entitled to the waters of the basin. It is only after meeting the interests of the basin, the surplus flows, if any could be diverted to the areas out side the basin. Even in case of Narmada the Hon’ble Tribunal expressed its inability to allocate waters of Narmada to the Rajasthan State, simply, because, Rajasthan was not a basin State. On the same principle, the regions and the districts lying within the Krishna basin naturally would get preference over the other basins, whether they are dependable flows or surplus flows or flood flows. But, the Government of Andhra Pradesh would not respect any laws or directions of Tribunals or Courts or any Institutions, if they do not suit to their line of thinking.
The Tribunal had recommended that the Minimum Draw Down Level (MDDL) of the Srisailam reservoir be kept at 830 feet in order to take maximum advantage of power production vide extract at Annexure-XXA. The Government have fixed the MDDL as 834 ft in the year 1996 vide G.O.Ms.No. 69 (Relevant portions enclosed vide Annexure-XXI), based on suggestions of Bachawat Tribunal (Relevant abstracts enclosed vide Annexure-XXII), However, the Government have mischievously raised the MDDL to 854 feet in the year 2004 to cater to the needs of Rayalaseema region, at the cost of power generation and irrigation interests of Nagarjunasagar and Krishna Delta. The raising of MDDL vide G.O.Ms.No. 107, a copy at Annexure-XXIII, was to facilitate drawl of Srisailam waters under all circumstances though Pothireddipadu Head Regulator whose sill level is 841 feet. This was the first act in the drama of diverting the flows of Krishna River to the outside basin. Therefore, a series of G.O.s followed one after another namely G.O.No.170, G.O. 233, G.O.No.3 and so on.(copies at Annexure-XXIIIA). By means of these G.O.s, the Pothireddipadu Head Regulator was permitted to be widened four times the present capacity. Though, the Government continues to make false statements that only the surplus flows would be diverted, but in reality, their intention is to divert the dependable flows to the detriment of the farmers downstream. The statements made by the then Hon’ble Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy, prove the point beyond doubt. (Paper cuttings enclosed at Annexure-XXIV)
The reason explained by the Government for increasing the capacity of the Head Regulator is that because of construction of Alamatti Dam, the period of inflows into the Srisailam Reservoir has reduced considerably. Therefore, there is a need to divert the surplus flows only within a span of 30 days. To serve this purpose, not only the capacity of Pothireddipadu Head Regulator is increased four times, the sizes of other components have been increased sufficiently. Many balancing reservoirs have been added to capture these surpluses. However, this facility is not extended to the Telangana Projects. The Nettempadu, Kalwakurthy and SLBC projects which are to serve the irrigation purposes of the drought affected areas of Telangana are to depend on the surplus flows for a period of 90days and not 30 days as designed in case of Rayalaseema Projects. No balancing reservoirs are planned to capture the surpluses in case of Telangana Projects as done for other Rayalaseema Projects. This sort of adopting double standards only reveals the apathy of the Government towards Telangana.
Banakacherla Cross Regulator:
The waters of Krishna stored in Srisailam diverted through Pothireddipadu Head Regulator would flow in to the Srisailam Right Main Canal and then distributed through Banakacherla Cross Regulator to various Projects. While the Pothireddipadu Cross Regulator was constructed in the year 1983 with a capacity of 11,150 cusecs the Banakacherla cross regulator was sanctioned in 1985 with a capacity of 32,300 cusecs. It is not understood why the discharging capacity of the cross regulator was kept three times of the head regulator capacity. Obviously, the intention was to divert more flows through the Pothireddipadu Head Regulator at a future date. Citing the capacity of Banakacherla cross regulator the Government has wisely increased the capacity of head regulator after 27 years. This episode clearly depicts that the Andhra rulers have preplanned to divert as much flows of Krishna to Penna Basin in a phased manner and accordingly they devised the strategy.
Luxury of having water to the second crop of the Krishna Delta:
Despite several requests made by the Government before the Bachawat Tribunal, the Tribunal did not accept to allocate more than 15.3 TMC of water, which could be utilized to irrigate 37, 498 acres of the second crop of the Krishna Delta, besides meeting the requirement of green manure, water supply, washing of salinity, navigation etc. However, the Government is continuously, as a matter of a right utilizing the flows of Krishna River to raise the second crop in the Krishna Delta to the extent of 4-5 lakh acres. ( Relevant extract of Tribunal’s report at Annexure - XXIVA)
PULICHINTHALA PROJECT:
The Pulichinthala Project, now under execution is essentially envisaged to capture intermittent flows below the Nagarjunasagar Dam. The Tribunal did not agree to allocate any waters to Pulichinthala Project. The Project is meant to stabilize the Krishna Delta ayacut, besides providing irrigation to the second crop and third crop subject to availability of water. When commenced it did not carry any permissions from any authority except that of Central Water Commission. The essential clearances from Environmental Ministry of Union Government were lacking, yet the State proceeded ahead facing lot of hindrances from the Courts and criticism from voluntary agencies. One of the main objections raised against the Pulichinthala was that Government did not consider viable alternatives. This has also figured in the meeting held between Mr. K. Chandrasekhar Rao, the then Union Minister for Labour Employment and the then Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh in presence of Sri Digvijay Singh, AICC General Secretary and Incharge Andhra Pradesh State. The State Government promised to consider the suggestion of looking into the alternatives, but miserably failed to do so. The Project would submerge 30, 000 acres of land besides submerging thousands of tones of valuable limestone deposits, spread over 472 acres of land. The alternatives suggested by Sri Hanumantha Rao, Retired E-in-C would have served the objective of the Project without creating any submergence. But, the Government is adamant and not prepared to consider any suggestion. In fact the Environmental Act warrants study of alternatives. This shows that the Government does not respect any Environmental law, or any other law of land. It has a hidden agenda of promoting the interests of Andhra area at the cost of submerging valuable lands of Telangana, displacing number of hapless poor farmers of Telangana and disrupting the economy of the locals who loose the opportunity of working in the cement factories that would get displaced.
UTILIZATION COMMITTED ACCORDING TO ALL PARTY RESOLUTION OF 1981
In pursuance of the resolution passed in the all party meeting held in 1981, Telugu Ganga Canal with extension to Sagileru Valley to irrigate 2.75 lakh acres with utilization of 29 TMC of surplus flows was sanctioned to the Rayalaseema region. On the same lines, Srisailam Left Bank Canal to irrigate 3 lakh acres in Nalgonda district with utilization of 30 TMC was granted to Telangana region. Though, both were to be treated on par, in reality, the Telugu Ganga Canal was always treated superior and preferred to the SLBC. The fact could be verified from the flow of funds to each Project in each year and the time taken for completion of that Project.
The comparison of budget outlays in crores for a few years for these two Projects is given as under:
Year Telugu Ganga SLBC
1984-85 60 crores 3.5 crores
1985-86 75 crores 15 crores
1995-96 200 crores 100 crores
2005-06 574 crores 145 crores
2006-07 465 crores 299.75 crores
2007-08 446.07 crores 380.76 crores
2008-09 227.23 crores 471.12 crores
2009-10 190.81 crores 419.50 crores
(Relevant extracts at Annexure-XXVIB)
The report an annual budget for the year 1996-97 admits that “work on SLBC, Dormant for the last five years, has been expedited” (extract enclosed vide Annexure-XXVII)
It is seen that both Projects were started in the year 1983. As per the financial progress is concerned, the Telugu Ganga Canal is 75 percent complete and SLBC has just crossed half mark. The latest estimated cost of Telugu Ganga Project is 4,432 Crores, whereas, the SLBC’s latest cost is 4,073 Crores. The cumulative expenditure up to January, 2006 incase of Telugu Ganga is 1880.40 crores and the same is 687.5 crores for SLBC. This means that the expenditure for Telugu Ganga was three times the expenditure for SLBC. It is only during last four years, when Telangana Agitation spearheaded, more funds have been pumped into the SLBC Project. Also since tunnel component has been added to the Project, the need for more funds was felt. The cumulative expenditure up to January, 2010 in case of Telugu Ganga is 3,151.66 crores against 2,196.5 Crores in case of SLBC (3:2). Though, both Projects are accorded same priority in terms of the all party resolution of 1981 and the total cost is almost same, there is huge variance in terms of the total expenditure. This is a clear example to show the Government’s apathy towards Telangana Projects.
Source:
The annual budgets of Government of Andhra Pradesh for various years.
APPORTIONMENT OF FLOWS OF GODAVARI:
As per the Bachawat Tribunal for Godavari Waters about 1480 TMC could be utilized as dependable flow by Andhra Pradesh. The catchment area of Telangana is 79% against 21% from Andhra. As per the guidelines of International Law Institute Telangana would have been entitled to 1169 TMC had Telangana were a separate State.
Except Sriramsagar Project (Pochampad) and Sir Arthur Cotton Barrage (Dhawaleshwaram Barrage) there are no other major structures on Godavari in Andhra Pradesh. Now, there is a proposal to construct Polavaram in Andhra area, Yellampally, Devadula, Kanthalapally, Pranahitha-Chevella and Dummugudem in Telangana. While, Polavaram is a gravity scheme all projects contemplated in Telangana are lift schemes requiring huge power.
Under Sir Arthur Cotton Barrage 10 lakh acres are being irrigated in each season (Kharif and Rabi). To provide water for second crop under the Barrage, there were several occasions, when the water was released from SRSP and Kinnerasani Project, ignoring the interests of Telangana.
THE PROJECTS IN GODAVARI BASIN:
The Hyderabad Government proposed Godavari Multipurpose project and Inchampally project on main Godavari and Devanur project on river Manjeera, tributary to Godavari.
GODAVARI PROJECT:
The Hyderabad Government framed a proposal for taking up Multipurpose Godavari Valley project in the year 1954. The Project was proposed to utilize 330 TMC of Godavari waters to irrigate 20.5 lakh acres of main crops besides 4.5 lakh acres of catch crops (green manure and fodder) and 3 lakh acres of forest fuel and pasture, at a cost of Rs. 85 crores. The Project was to generate 144 mw of power, for which installed capacity of 175 mw was proposed. The Project was to be constructed in four stages. The Hyderabad Government has claimed it as one of the best irrigation schemes in the Country. The Project was to serve areas in seven districts of the Hyderabad State, namely Nanded (now in Maharashtra State), Adilabad, Nizamabad, Karimnagar, Warangal, Khammam and Nalgonda. All these districts except Adilabad are densely populated and the cultivators are used to irrigation under numerous tanks scattered in the area. Further, the Project would serve a very large area in the Krishna Basin in Nalgonda and Khammam districts, which has no other source of irrigation. Further, this area frequently suffers from scarcity and due to the failure of rains at the crop periods. However, the Project did not materialize.
As could be seen from the Fifteenth Report of the Sub Committee on Planning of the Andhra Pradesh Regional Committee as adopted on 8th June, 1959, the Pochampad Project was proposed in place of the erstwhile Godavari Valley Project with modified scope. As per the modified proposal, the cost of the Project was 117.85 crores and it would serve an ayacut of 18.56 lakh acres in five districts, namely Nizamabad, Karimnagar, Warangal, Khammam and Nalgonda.
Despite strong recommendations from the Sub Committee on Planning of the Andhra Pradesh Regional Committee to the Government of Andhra Pradesh, to get the Project included in the second five year plan, the Government of Andhra Pradesh did not succeed due to the strong objections from the Government of Maharashtra. The Project which commenced as a Medium Project now ultimately got sanction from the Planning Commission as a Major Project with much reduced scope as compared to the original proposal envisaged by the Hyderabad Government.
As per the Project now under execution (SRSP Stage-I, SRSP Stage-II and Flood Flow Canal), it is to serve an area of 16.68 lakh acres.
Pochampad, the only prestigious Major Project, which is considered as the lifeline of the Telangana, is suffering badly due to inefficient and discriminatory attitude of the Government. The Project started in the year 1963 is still progressing with snail’s space. The report of annual budget of Government of Andhra Pradesh for the year 1959-60 says “ a medium project on Godavari at Pochampad in Adilabad district has been investigated and report being submitted to the Government of India with a view to make a beginning, if possible, during the period of second planning it self ”. The report on annual budget for the year 1966-67 says “due to pressure of demands for several projects and schemes, it has not been possible to provide more than Rs. 1.2 crores for the Pochampad Project next year”. However, Rs. 8.2 crores were allocated to Nagarjunasagar Project, 1.98 crores was allotted Tungabhadra High level canal, 0.43 crores for Tandava Reservoir and 0.12 crores for KC Canal. It can be realized that except Nagarjunasagar, which is a Project which would benefit Telangana region (approximately ¼ to Telangana and ¾ to Andhra) all other Projects belong to Andhra area and Government did not find any problem in allocating funds to them. ( Relevant extract at Annexure-XXVIIA). Further, the budget allocations to the Project were always given lesser priority as compared to Nagarjunasagar Project, as can be noticed from the extracts at Annexure-XXVIIB. Evidently, the Government did not pay adequate attention toward this Project, being the Telangana Project.
As far as the progress of construction of Pochampad project now named as Sri Ram Sagar Project (SRSP) is concerned, the comments of the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) for the year ended 31st March, 1999 is worth perusal and they are reproduced as follows: “due to non completion of Kakatiya Canal between Km 235 and Km 284, as also of some distributaries under the all Canals, only 2.55 lakh (65 per cent) ha irrigation potential had been created by 1990, though, the Canal system started functioning from 1970. The potential actually utilized during the last five years was, however, still lower (0.55 to 0.87 lakh ha), a meager 34 per cent of the potential created (2.55 lakh ha), and only 22 per cent of that envisaged (3.92 lakh ha). The low utilization of potential was attributed mainly to (i) reduction of varying capacity of Kakatiya Canal from 8,500 cusecs to 5,000 cusecs due to bed siltation and broken lining (ii) over drawl of water in upper reaches”. The Government claims that it has completed SRSP stage-I successfully in the year 2004 and it has developed potential of 9.68 lakh acres. However, as per the report of Chief Engineers of dated 12-09-2008, the ayacut irrigated under SRSP project is only 5 lakh acres. (Relevant extract vide at Annexure XXVIII). This shows that the claims made by the Government are not at all true. The fact could be verified by the Hon’ble members of the Commission from the farmers of SRSP Stage-I, during their field inspection.
The Kakatiya Canal, the principle carrier of SRSP waters was originally planned to have a length of 234 Km. However, the same was extended up to 284 Km, under SRSP Stage-I. The works on the Canal up to Km. 234 were carried out with assistance under Second World Bank Project. Thereafter, the balance works between Km. 235 to Km. 284 were continued with State Funds as well as Central assistance under AIBP. However, while processing the third Project in April, 1997. World Bank Authorities observed that simulation model studies conducted by the department indicated that extension of command beyond Km. 234 was not warranted; as supply of water would be extremely unreliable. Against this background, the works being executed on Kakatiya Canal beyond Km. 234 were of doubtful utility, as commented by the Comptroller and Auditor of India, in his report. The relevant extracts of the CAG report is at Annexure-XXVIIIA.
When the water availability is so doubtful, even to bring the Canal up to Km. 284, the purpose behind taking further the Kakatiya Canal from Km. 284 to Km. 346 is nothing but fooling the Telangana people, in the absence of assured supplies.
SRSP STAGE – II
This component at a cost of Rs. 1,098 crores is supposed to create irrigation potential of 4, 40,000 acres. Though, Rs. 763.67 crores are reported to have been spent on the Project, not even a single acre has been added to the cultivated area. Pitiably, the Government claims that they created new potential of 1, 64,687 acres till end of January, 2010, which is utterly false and this can be verified in the field. The surprising part of this Project is that Government still has not decided from which source this Project will get water. The main SRSP Reservoir is unable to serve even the first stage ayacut fully, as already pointed out by the CAG (please refer the earlier para). Therefore, the SRSP stage-II has to depend on waters either from Yellampally Project or Devadula Project, which are under construction or Pranahitha-Chevella Scheme, which is yet to be grounded. However, the Government has apparently come up with a proposal to meet the needs of SRSP-II by constructing Kanthalapally Barrage downstream of Devadula. It is to be seen, ultimately from which source the waters to the SRSP-II would actually materialize.
The problems faced by SRSP Project:
Numerous problems are faced by SRSP. On one hand, the inflows in to the reservoir have reduced considerably. The envisaged inflows of 196 TMC into SRSP Dam are not realized and only around 150 TMC are experienced. The capacity of the reservoir got reduced due to heavy silitation in the reservoir ( 112 TMC got reduced to 80 TMC). The main canal namely the Kakatiya, which was supposed to carry a discharge of 9,700 cusecs is unable to carry the designed discharge due to faulty designs and lapses in the construction. The problem is aggravated due to construction of Babli Project and eleven more schemes upstream of SRSP by Government of Maharashtra. Now, there are apprehensions in minds of the farmers of SRSP that the reservoir will not get sufficient flows, once all the Projects now under execution by Government of Maharashtra are completed, with the result, the fields of SRSP will turn into desert and the farmers will be forced to commit suicides.
The Babli and other Projects under construction by Government of Maharashtra:
The Government of Andhra Pradesh was virtually caught sleeping, when Babli and other eleven Projects were taken up by Government of Maharashtra upstream of SRSP. It was only when the Media and some of the opposition parties have brought the issue in to light, then the Government woke up and started taking some actions that too making correspondence with Government of Maharashtra. From the chronology of the events that took place since the issue caught up the Government’s attention, it is very clear that the Government did not take the matter seriously. The inordinate delay in realizing the importance of the issue now poses a serious threat to the farmers of SRSP. It was only after Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) and other political parties have taken up the matter to the Supreme Court, the Government of Andhra Pradesh also took some steps in that direction. All the Projects which are under construction by the Government of Maharashtra are almost complete. In particular, the Babli Project is complete except for erection of gates. The matter is before the Hon’ble Supreme Court. The State Government instead of taking advice from the engineering and legal experts and cooperation from all political parties is trying to isolate them. In fact, the State Government requested the Supreme Court to dismiss the petitions filed by the opposition parties. The seriousness with which State Government is fighting the case of Polavaram in the Supreme Court is not at all seen in case of Babli project. The number of people’s representatives and Officials present at the time of hearings of both the cases would prove the point beyond doubt. The Government is acting in step motherly manner so far as protecting the interest of SRSP is concerned. On the other hand, the State Government is very much concerned about the hindrances that are coming in the way of Polavaram Project. This itself shows that the Government of Andhra Pradesh is favourably disposed towards Andhra area in preference to the Telangana.
Projects undertaken under Jalayagnam Programme:
Around 82 Projects Major and Medium are taken up by the Government under Jalayagnam programme at a huge cost of 1, 76,000 crores. In Godavari Basin, a number of major Projects namely SRSP stage-II, Flood flow Canal, J. Chokka Rao Devadula Lift Irrigation Scheme, Sripadasagar (Yellampally), Pranahitha-Chevella and Dummugudem Nagarjunasagar Tail Pond have been undertaken. Polavaram Project is the major project taken up in the Andhra area, besides a few lift schemes namely Thadipudi Lift Irrigation Scheme, Pushkaram Lift Irrigation Scheme. A new Project namely Babu Jagjeevan Ram Uttarandhra Sujala Sravanthi is also included in the list of Projects for which budget provisions have been made in the year 2009-10.
PRANAHITHA-CHEVELLA:
The Project is estimated to cost Rs. 38, 500 crores. The ultimate irrigation potential is 16.4 lakh acres. While the budget provision for the year 2009-10 was just 600 crores, the same for year 2010-11 is mere 700 crores. These figures indicate as to how serious the Government is in executing the Project. Government says that it will make efforts to include this project in the prestigious ‘National Projects Category’. It is not known whether the State Government’s request will be accepted by the Union Government. It is not known how many years the Project needs for completion. If Central Government does not provide adequate assistance, how the State Government proposes to complete the Project is not understood. In the Policy Statement, on the Demand for Grant on Major and Medium irrigation in 2010-11, The Government of Andhra Pradesh has mentioned that “The work load of Dr. Ambedkar Pranahitha-Chevella Sujala Sravathi divided in to 28 packages and agreements for all the packages concluded. Investigation work is in progress in all the packages”. It means that, even without undertaking ground survey and preparing detailed project report and submitting to Government of India for approval, the Government has already awarded the work through 28 packages to the contractors and the contractors in turn have collected mobilization advances. Even the agreement with the Government of Maharashtra has not been concluded to obtain their concurrence, since Pranahitha is an inter-state river and head works lie in territory of Maharashtra. The Project needs huge power to the extent of 3375 MW. The Government has not planned yet from where the required power will be provided. Further, who will bear the cost of energy, once the Project comes in to operation is not worked out. The situation being so clumsy, the Government makes false promises to the people of Telangana, that they are determined to provide huge benefits to the farmers of Telangana through this Project and making a big campaign of the Project. (Copy of advertisement at Annexure-XXVIIIB). As per the campaign, the Project is slated for completion by May, 2012, a deceitful statement.
In fact, the Andhra Engineers are dead against the sanction of this Project, because they apprehend that the flows of Pranahitha will upset the functioning of Polavaram Project, once Pranahitha-Chevella comes into operation. This is evident from the following happenings. The then Chief Minister while giving clearance to the Pranahitha-Chevella Project verbally has instructed his officials to expedite the administrative approval to the Project. The Chief Minister was enthusiastic over the proposal of lifting 160 TMC of Pranahitha waters and carrying them even up to Chevella, a drought prone area of Ranga Reddy district. But the officials put every spoke in clearing the project. They tried to scuttle the size of the Project, by giving a Government order (copy enclosed vide Annexure-XXVIIIC) to the effect proposing 5.5 lakh acres of ayacut only, in place of 12 lakh acres as originally envisaged. Further, they tried to complicate the issue by introducing the condition that the proposed transfer of water from Pranahitha is subject to satisfying the Government that this transfer is within the water allocation as per Inter-State Godavari Water Tribunal Award. It was only after the intervention of Chief Minister, who reportedly expressed displeasure over the mess created by his officials (Vide Annexure-XXVIIID), the controversial G.O. was scraped and revised G.O. (copy enclosed vide Annexure-XXIX) permitting to lift 160 TMC as originally envisaged and without the reference to the Inter-State Godavari Water Tribunal Award was issued. However, both the G.O.s referred above are for the preparation of Detailed Project Report, Detailed Investigations etc. only. The Government have now accorded the Administrative Sanction to the scheme for Rs. 17, 875 crores. Though, this Government order was ready for issue quite some time back, this was held in abeyance deliberately and finally issued only along with another G.O. for taking up Dummugudem-NS Tail Pond on the same date. (Copies of both the G.O.s are at Annexure-XXX). This was done to minimize the opposition from Telanganites, who are opposed to taking up Dummugudem-NS Tail Pond Project, since this would deprive them of their legitimate share of Godavari waters.
DUMMUGUDEM-NS TAIL POND:
This Project is aimed to lift 165 TMC of water from river Godavari from upstream of Dummugudem anicut and carry to Nagarjunasagar Project Tail pond during flood season of Godavari to supplement irrigation under Nagarjunasagar Project. The scheme is a mischievous one, contemplated by the Government to divert the dependable flows of Godavari to Krishna basin in the garb of flood flows, to benefit the farmers of Rayalaseema by process of substitution. In fact, no body either is interested or requested the Government to provide supplementation to the irrigation under the Nagarjunasagar Project by means of Godavari waters. The present flows of NS Dam, if properly and judicially managed would be adequate to cater to the needs of N.S. ayacut. No farmer of N.S. Project is interested to replace the traditional system of getting water from Krishna by Godavari waters that too by huge lifting, about 500 meters requiring 1136 MW power.
The Government faced the ire of opposition parties in the Assembly over this Project. The opposition parties termed this Project as “ill-conceived and unscientific and was against the Godavari Water Disputes Tribunal Award”. They said the benefit expected from the Project did not justify its huge expenditure of Rs. 20,000 crore. Further, they said the State would have to loose the part of share of Krishna waters, once the Godavari water was diverted to the Krishna (Relevant extract at Annexure-XXXA)
The real intention of the Government is to divert the dependable flows of Krishna to Rayalaseema and other areas through Pothireddipadu Head Regulator from Srisailam Reservoir and in lieu they intend to transfer Godavari waters. While concealing the real intention of the Government, they are trying to bring the Godavari waters at a huge cost of around Rs. 20,000 crores. Not even a single acre of additional ayacut will be benefited under the scheme. The irony of the whole scheme is that while depriving 165 TMC of dependable flows (in the name of flood flows) that legitimately belong to Telangana just to benefit the Andhra area (mainly Rayalaseema), the Government has included this proposal under the Telangana Projects category.
Diversion of Godavari waters in to Krishna Basin:
As per the Godavari water disputes Tribunal the State of Andhra Pradesh can divert 80 TMC of Godavari waters to Krishna Basin from Polavaram Dam. However, it has to loose 35 TMC of Krishna waters of its share from the date of clearance of the Polavaram Project by the Central Water Commission, irrespective of the actual diversion taking place. Also Krishna Water Dispute Tribunal has stipulated that in the event of the augmentation of waters of the river Krishna by the diversion of the waters of any other river, no State shall be debarred from claiming before the aforesaid reviewing authority or Tribunal that it is entitled to greater share in the waters of the river Krishna an account of such augmentation nor shall any State be debarred from disputing such claim.
In addition to loosing 35 TMC of Krishna waters on account of diversion of 80 TMC of Godavari waters from Polavaram, 72 TMC of Krishna waters (on the same analogy of diversion from Polavaram) would have to be sacrificed, once the diversion of 165 TMC of Godavari waters into Krishna Basin, through the Dummugudem-NS tail pond Canal takes place. Thus, 107 TMC of valuable Krishna waters are to be sacrificed by the State to the Maharashtra and Karnataka due to these two diversion schemes. However, the Government is least bothered about loosing of the Krishna waters to the upper States. They are only interested in diverting as much Krishna waters as possible from Srisailam Reservoir, through Pothireddipadu Head Regulator, at the cost of Telangana and other downstream users.
J. CHOKKA RAO DEVADULA LIFT IRRIGATION SCHEME:
Devadula Lift Irrigation Scheme contemplates lifting of 38.18 TMC of Godavari waters to irrigate 6.21 lakh acres in upland drought prone areas of Karimnagar, Warangal and Nalgonda districts from an elevation of 71 meter to 540 meter. The Project cost already sanctioned is 6,016 crores and the same is being revised to Rs.9, 317 crores. The funniest part of this scheme is that there is no structure proposed to be built at the place of lifting. The water proposed to be lifted is directly from the river itself. If the water level goes down below the intake of the pumps, the whole system would collapse. The Government did not heed to the advice of the experts and proceeded ahead as per their wish. Now only, having realized their mistake, has devised another scheme namely Kanthalapally Project to provide constant water levels to facilitate lifting from Devadula, but unfortunately, the Kanthalapally Project, though, accorded administrative approval for Rs. 10,409 crores vide G.O.Ms.No. 27, dated 16-02-2009 is not awarded yet to the contractors and the tendering process has just begun. The Devadula Project, now under execution is suffering very badly due to inferior quality of work and lack of supervision by the department. It has been noticed that on more than one occasion, the pipes laid down blew off, whenever, the water was gushing through the pipes under pressure, at the time of trial runs. The Government obviously did not pay adequate attention to the quality of work.
INDIRASAGAR POLAVARAM PROJECT:
This Project has been taken up by the erstwhile Government on a priority basis and is considered as a prestigious one. Despite, several serious objections from the Environmentalists, Tribal leaders, Farmers, People likely to be submerged by the Project and other Non Governmental Organizations and without obtaining even a single Statutory Clearance from the Concerned Authorities, the Government has gone ahead and without bothering about any law of the land or consulting any expert in the matter. As per Environmental Act, 1986, before launching any Development Project, alternatives are to be studied. Further environment clearance, forest clearances are mandatory. Unfortunately, the Government did not obtain even the site clearance, which is first and foremost clearance needed to be obtained from the Ministry of Environment and Forests, before taking up the Project. The Government already spent around 2, 500 crores. The matter is before the Hon’ble Supreme Court. The Government of Orissa is seriously objecting to the Project on ground that they are not consulted and their concurrence was not obtained as per the agreements specified in the Bachawat Tribunal for Godavari waters. They are not interested to get an inch of their land submerged due to Polavaram. Even the High Court of Orissa gave directions to the effect. The Environmental clearance obtained from the Government of India was found to be based on false information furnished by State Authorities. Without holding mandatory public hearings in Chhattisgarh and Orissa, the State of Andhra Pradesh have furnished wrong reports and obtained Environmental clearance. On an appeal, the clearance was struck down by the Environmental Tribunal.
The agreement reached between the Madhya Pradesh (now Chhattisgarh), Orissa and Andhra Pradesh provides for designing the Dam taking into consideration of the flood magnitude of 36 lakh cusecs. Since the flood has increased to 50 lakh cusecs, the design of the Dam and protection works for submergence need to be done afresh and concurrence from the States is needed. The scope of the Project is also changed. While in the Project report, it is mentioned that 7.2 lakh acres will be brought under irrigation, in reality, canals to irrigate 23 lakh acres are excavated.
As far as Telangana is concerned their objection is that the Project is submerging 206 villages of Khammam district of Telangana, as per Government’s report with magnitude of 36 lakh cusecs. The field survey is yet to be done. This figure is in dispute. With onslaught of 50 lakh cusecs, how many villages would come under submergence is yet to be established. Even with 36 lakh cusec flood, as per old records, Project is submerging around 2 lakh acres of valuable land, mostly belonging to Tribal people. The entire Tribal community will get displaced and they are vehemently opposing the Project. Therefore, in a meeting held at New Delhi in presence of Digvijay Singh on 20-07-2005, the then Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh was requested by the President of Telangana Rashtra Samithi that the unauthorized construction of Polavaram Project for which there is no clearance may be stopped and alternatives be worked out. The Government having agreed to the proposal, however, made a mockery of the agreement by instituting a Committee by framing terms of reference, such that, the present proposal is the only the answer. The Government is now in a dilemma, as they do not know what would be the fate of the Project, if the Supreme Court does not allow the Polavaram Project. Knowing fully well, that the Project is yet to receive approval from the Supreme Court, the State Government has pressurized the Union Government to issue all clearances and they are making full efforts to get the Project included in the National Project Category. Telangana is not opposed to give water to the beneficiaries of the Project. What they are interested is that a series of small Projects could be built in place of the present Project, so that submergence can either altogether be avoided or kept minimum.
The essential dam break analysis forming part of disaster management study was required to be carried out properly by the Project Authorities and the results were necessarily required to be informed to the people in the public hearing. Certain vital information was deliberately concealed in the public hearing. It is a matter of interest to note that as compared to Sardar Sarovar Project and Tungabhadra Project, the ratio of area of submergence to the area benefited is too high in case of Polavaram. While it is 21.89% in case of Polavaram, it is 7.15% in Tungabhadra and a mere 1.77% in case of Sardar Sarovar.
SINGUR PROJECT:
The Singur Project across River Manjeera, Tributary to River Godavari came into existence in place of Devanur project, which was contemplated by the erstwhile Hyderabad Government. While the Devanur Project was basically aimed to generate power, the Singur Project was planned to originally achieve two fold objectives to arrest siltage and to stabilize storage in Nizamsagar. In addition to providing 8.35 TMC for stabilization of Nizamsagar ayacut, 4.06 TMC to Ghanpur ayacut, 4 TMC to the City water supply, 2 TMC was allotted for new ayacut in Medak District. But in reality, the Project has been converted into a water supply Project to serve the Twin Cities. The promised irrigation supplies to the Nizamsagar ayacut and Ghanpur ayacut have been made dependent on the water availability in Singur. Practically, the farmers of Nizamsagar and Ghanpur ayacut have felt that they are cheated, since original promise made to them for stabilization of Nizamsagar and Ghanpur anicut never materialized. Though, promises were made to give 2 TMC of water to irrigate 40,000 acres of new ayacut in Medak district, it was only a few years back that too at the instance of T.R.S. the G.O. in the matter was released. (Copy enclosed vide Annexure- XXXI) and still the water is not made available to the beneficiaries.
In fact, Manjeera has a limited potential of 99 TMC only and it cannot support the demands of water supply to Twin Cities, since, it has already commitment to irrigate the existing Ghanpur and Nizamsagar projects. (The relevant extract of report is at Annexure- XXXII)
The Committee constituted by Government of Andhra Pradesh in the year 1972, under the Chairmanship of Sri K.V. Srinivasa Rao, Chairman, A.P. State Electricity Board to consider and finalize additional resources for augmentation of water supply to Twin Cities while expressing the limitation of Manjeera has expressed his views in the following words:
“It will not, therefore, be desirable to tap this River further for augmenting the water supply to Twin Cities…… Hence, it is suggested that detailed investigation may be carried out for tapping water from Srisailam Hydro Electric Project”.
Despite clear recommendations of the High Power Technical Committee against diverting water from Manjeera and bringing water from Krishna, the Government has managed to get a report from the Department which opined that “The Manjeera has unutilized flows to the extent of 10 TMC per annum, which can be allotted to the Hyderabad city for water supply”. They have also expressed that Krishna water Tribunal has not made any specific allocation of water from the River Krishna for water supply to the Twin Cities, which utterly is a false statement. Krishna Water Dispute Tribunal has specifically allocated 3.9 TMC towards water supply to Twin Cities. (relevant extracts at Annexure-XXXIII)
The fact is that then Minister for Municipal Administration Sri Challa Subba Rayudu, belonged to Rayalaseema region. Like any leader of the Rayalaseema he also was not in favour of utilizing Krishna waters for any other purpose, except for Rayalaseema. With this ill motive, the Government have entered into agreement with Karnataka, and made them to agree to permit construction of Singur in place of Devanur. Thus, Singur has come into existence to store waters from Manjeera to serve, mainly twin Cities and steal waters of Manjeera from the farmers of Telangana (Medak and Nizamabad districts). All this is done to help the Rayalaseema region at the cost of Telangana. This is a clear-cut example to show the discriminatory attitude of Government of Andhra Pradesh towards Telangana. When the farmers of Medak District opposed to Singur project, the Government promised to allocate 2 TMC from Singur to irrigate 40,000 acres of new ayacut in Medak district and they have issued orders vide G.O.Ms.No. 455, dated 31-10-1980. This promise is not fulfilled till to date. Only, at the instance of Telangana Rashtra Samithi the Government was forced to issue another G.O. in the year 2005 for honouring their old commitment. (Copy enclosed wide Annexure- XXXIV). However, the work is yet to be completed.
GHANPUR ANICUT:
As reported in the Government order 272, dated 07-10-1993 (Annexure-XXXIVA), the “Ghanpur ayacut scheme across Majeera River was constructed in 1905 for irrigating 30,000 acres in Medak district. The main crop grown in the ayacut is Paddy”.
The farmers under the Ghanpur ayacut were enjoying 4.06 TMC of Majeera waters and irrigating the designated ayacut without problems till the Singur Dam was constructed by the Government of Andhra Pradesh. Even during 1980 the Government vide G.O. No. 190, dated 12-04-1980 (Annexure-XXXIVB), the Government has reiterated its commitment on Singur Dam as follows: “Fathenahar and Mahabubnagar (Irrigation) as 4.06 TMC”. Both the nahars are canals taking off from the Ghanpur anicut. However, the real problem to the farmers of Ghanpur had arisen when the Government as a part of deal with the World Bank Authorities, who provided substantial assistance to the Project, agreed that they would operate the Singur Reservoir in accordance with the operating rules approved by the Bank. Accordingly, Government of Andhra Pradesh have laid down operating rules for Singur Reservoir specifying the minimum Reservoir levels for each month vide G.O. No. 93, dated 24-02-1990 (Annexure-XXXIVC). Further, in the said G.O. it is mentioned that “water for irrigation shall be released only when the water levels are higher than minimum levels indicated ….”. Thus, the irrigation requirements of the ayacutdars, who have been enjoying their riparian rights since 1905 have been subordinated to the dictatorial conditions laid down by the World Bank agencies. Since then, each year the farmers of Ghanpur anicut had to go to the Government with begging bowls requesting them to release at least a fraction of their entitled share of water.
It can be seen that vide G.O.No. 10, dated 02-01-2009 (Annexure- XXXID), Government have permitted release of 1.95 TMC (against their entitlement of 4.06 TMC). Again vide G.O.No. 1000, dated 22-12-2009 (Annexure – XXXIVE), as a one time measure, Government accorded permission for release of 0.3 TMC to irrigate 10,000 acres I.D. during Rabi 2009-10. Accordingly, this year the farmers raised the crops to extent of 10,000 acres after investing considerable amounts. The farmers, after utilizing 0.3 TMC waters released as first installment have been eagerly waiting for further releases, but in vain. Frustrated, with Government’s inaction in not releasing timely supplies, the farmers approached the Chairman, Human Rights, who gave favourable orders. Though, the Government have released waters now the same are of no utility to the farmers, since, by that time the crops have already wilted. The farmers had to undergo huge loss besides mental agony. This is the pathetic story of Telangana farmers in general and Singur ayacut in particular, who have to surrender their legal entitlements in favour of those, whom the Government considers as superiors. The hapless farmers of Ghanpur anicut are anxious to meet the Hon’ble Members of the Committee to recite their unending woes during their field visit to the Project.
NIZAMSAGAR PROJECT:
The erstwhile Government of Hyderabad constructed Nizamsagar Project in the year 1931 to irrigate 2.75 lakh acres of land utilizing 58 TMC of water. While the live storage of Reservoir was 25.6 TMC, dead storage was provided to the extent of 4.12 TMC. It was visualized that Devanur Project upstream of Nizamsagar would be taken up later for generating power and regulating supplies to Nizamsagar Project and also would act as silt arrester. In view of the developments that took place as explained in the above para, Devanur was dropped and Singur was converted as the water supply Project. Not only the Nizamsagar Project starved for the dependable supplies from upstream, it suffered badly on account of heavy siltation. Practically, it has lost 60% of its original capacity during the period of 42 years. Subsequently, the Government have raised the height of the Dam and improved the capacity of the Reservoir by 6 TMC. However, the position has not improved significantly and the Reservoir is not able to irrigate more than 1 lakh acres of the ayacut. In order to supply the tail end areas, two lift schemes namely Alisagar and Gutpa to divert water of Godavari from upstream of Sriramsagar Project have been commissioned recently. This is the pathetic story of the glorious Project built by erstwhile Nizam Government (then it was considered as one of the biggest Project, in Asia) and stands as testimony of the utter negligence of the Andhra Pradesh Government, just because it is a Telangana Project.
INCHAMPALLY:
The Inchampally Project proposed downstream of confluence of Indrāvati and Godavari Rivers was found to be one of the best sites by the Central Water Commission. Though, an agreement was entered into between the States of Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Andhra Pradesh on 07-08-1978, the work could not be proceeded ahead, since the Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra had objected to the 112.77 meter FRL, proposed for the Project by Andhra Pradesh. As per the agreement, the Telangana would get 80 TMC of water by gravity and 5 TMC by lift. Despite repeated consultations amongst the three States, in the presence of Union Government, no concurrence could be achieved to the proposal. The Union Government, instead, proposed a low Dam with the reduced FRL of 95 meters. Unfortunately, the Government of Andhra Pradesh rejected the Union Government’s proposal. Had the proposal of Government of India with reduced FRL accepted at that time (in the year 1995), the Low Dam would have materialized and Telangana reaped certain benefits. Further, Union Government offered financial assistance to build the Low Dam and were ready to mediate for settling the disputes arising out of submergence. Due to adamant attitude of the Government, the golden opportunity of having a low Dam was missed. Now, the State Government has changed its mind and prepared to have a Low Dam with 95 meter FRL. However, no discussions with the neighboring States have taken place. While it is a fact that Inchampally and Polavaram were having similar problems (the Government of India had difficulties in clearing the Projects due to serious objections from the neighboring States as can be seen from the Annexure-XXXV), the Polavaram Project was started by the State Government without any clearance from any authority or concurrence from the neighboring States, but there was no progress at all in case of Inchampally. This clearly shows that the Government’s intentions lie in promoting the interests of Andhra, but not bothering about poor Telangana farmers.
LOWER PENGANGA PROJECT:
The Lower Penganga Project is a joint Project between state of Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh on Penganga River, tributary of river Godavari. The project would benefit an ayacut of 27,300 ha in Andhra Pradesh (Telangana) and 2.27 lakh ha in Maharashtra. An agreement was concluded between the States on 6th October, 1975. It is a pity that even after 35 years, such a small project could not be commenced, as necessary persuasion from the State Government’s side was lacking.
LENDI INTER STATE PROJECT:
This is another Inter-State Major Irrigation Project of Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra States. The Project would benefit 22,000 acres in Andhra Pradesh and 27,000 acres in Maharashtra. An agreement was concluded between the two States on 18-11-2003 to take up the Project as a joint venture. The apportioned cost to Andhra Pradesh is around 202.19 crores. So far only, Rs. 45 crores have been spent, which shows lack of interest in getting the Project executed early, since it is to benefit Telangana.
KINNERASANI PROJECT:
Kinnerasani Project built across Kinnerasani, a tributary of river Godavari, with an utilization of 8.14 TMC is envisaged to serve essentially the Kothagudem Thermal Power Plant (KTPS), with installed capacity of 680 mw and irrigation for 10,000 acres besides meeting the drinking requirements of Kothagudem and Palvoncha towns of Khammam district of Telangana. The proximity of the Project to the Godavari Delta has become a curse to the Project, since, whenever there is shortage of water in the river Godavari to meet the crop requirements of Godavari Delta, even for second crop (Rabi season), the Government does not hesitate even for a second and issues immediate orders for release of waters from Kinnerasani Project, to augment the supplies to Godavari Delta, not minding the sufferings of stake-holders of the Project. On 16-01-2009, in a span of 27 days 2.40 TMC of waters from the Kinnerasani were released to benefit the farmers of Godavari Delta, without bothering the protests from the KTPS authorities and interests of power production. This has resulted in closure of 2 units of KTPS for 3 days, leading to a significant loss of power. Further, the residents of both the towns, namely, Kothagudem and Palvoncha suffered very badly due to lack of drinking waters. Though the National Water Policy accords first priority to the drinking water and the Supreme Court held that the right to drinking water is the fundamental right and it is the responsibility of the State to supply drinking water, yet the Government have released the water for irrigation purposes that too for a different Project. This only shows how the Government is inclined to promote the interests of Andhra region at the cost of Telangana. A visit to the Project by the Hon’ble Members of the Committee would be extremely helpful in understanding the real situation.
MINOR IRRIGATION
Minor irrigation system (mainly tank irrigation) was developed in Telangana by rulers of Kakatiya, Qutubshahi and Asafjahi dynasty. Every village was self-sufficient with food production and the entire village people were engaged with farming work and ancillary works
Before the merger of Hyderabad State with the Andhra state, Telangana had about 16,000 big tanks, each irrigating an area of more than 100 acres, 60,000 small tanks having irrigation capacity of less than 100 acres and about 4000 ‘kathwas’ & cross bunds which used to irrigate 5-10 acres each. Under these 70,000 tanks about 13 lakh acres were being irrigated. Farmers used to produce Paddy under these tanks. Maize, jowar, pulses, groundnut, seasum etc. were produced in the dry lands as rain fed crops. The tanks were so designed that the surplus flow from one would reach the other and so on to form a chain system.
At the time of allocation of assured water in Krishna & Godavari basins the quantum arrived under minor irrigation system of Telangana region was about 200TMC.This itself is an ample proof that minor irrigation system was functioning with success. For example, there are tanks like Ramappa, Paakala, Ghanpur and Laknavaram which are functioning successfully for more than 500 years and irrigating the registered ayacut.
As the Government did not respond either to take up new major irrigation projects or maintain the dilapidated tanks, the farmers of Telangana region were forced to go in for tube well irrigation system, to eke out their livelihood. Since the tube well irrigation system needs pumping the farmers were required to make huge investments in digging the bore wells as well for installing the pumping system. There are incidents when the farmers had to dig a number of bore wells before striking at a bore well yielding the requisite supplies of ground water. Today, the number of pumpsets working in Telangana are around 18 lakhs. On an average 3 acres under each pump set is irrigated. In this process, each farmer has incurred about a lakh of rupees per acre to continue irrigation under bore wells. Thus, Telangana farmers have invested more than Rs. 25,000 Crores during the last 45 years. The main problem faced by farmers irrigating under tube well is the erratic supply of electricity, which results in burning the motor and consequently incurring heavy expenditure. Also crop failure due to non availability of sufficient water is another cause worrying the farmers. The net result is that the farmers, unable to meet the debt burden often tend to commit suicides.
Before the merger, Telangana had a total net irrigated area of 20 lakh acres comprising of around of 3 lakh acres from canals, 4 lakh acres from dug wells and balance 13 lakh acres from tanks. Thus, it can be seen that the major burden of providing irrigation to the area was on shoulders of tanks. In fact, tanks were considered as the lifeline of Telangana. There were 3-4 tanks, big and small in each village. Lot of attention was paid by the erstwhile rulers, Zamindars and landlords towards maintenance and up keep of tanks. However, after the merger with Andhra Pradesh, a false promise was given by Andhra rulers that most of the cultivable land of Telangana would be provided with canal irrigation. The Telangana people believed the Andhra rulers’ promises in good faith, since, at the time merger, out of the total net irrigated area 41 lakh acres in Coastal Andhra 27 lakh acres was under canal irrigation only. All the promises made by the Andhra rulers were proved to be futile. The Government’s statistics show that after 51 years i.e., during the year 2007-08 the canal’s irrigation in Telangana has increased by 2.65 lakh acres but the tank irrigation gone down by 9.25 lakh acres. Most of the tanks have either disappeared an account of urbanization or lost their retaining capacity due to lack of maintenance.
The combined irrigation from canals and tanks, for which the Government is mainly responsible has gone down by 6.6 lakh acres. Paradoxically, during this period the well irrigation which is entirely done at the cost of cultivators has gone up by 30 lakh acres. Mischievously, the Government, adding the well irrigation (which is done at the cost cultivators) with the combined irrigation of tanks and canals (both at the cost of Government) are claiming the credit for the increase in the total irrigation. On the other hand, in Coastal Andhra the combined irrigation from canals and tanks has increased during the same 50 years.
The details of net area irrigated from different sources namely canals, wells (tube & dug) and Tanks in Costal Andhra, Rayalaseema and Telangana are at Annexure- XXXVI
Disparities in the area of ayacut irrigated in Telangana and Andhra regions:
The cultivable area in Andhra region is 215.39 lakh acres, whereas it is 175.19 lakh acres in Telangana. There is a wide disparity in the areas irrigated in between both the regions. As can be noticed from the Table given below, the area irrigated in Kharif season in Major Projects of Telangana as reported in the Outcome Budget for the year 2007-08 for Major, Medium and Minor Irrigation Projects, presented to the Assembly is quite astonishing. Whereas, the cultivable area of Andhra (215.39 lakh acres)is just 1.23 times to that of Telangana (175.19 lakh acres), the irrigated area under major irrigation projects of Andhra (39.1 lakh acres) is about 3 times to that of Telangana (12.9 lakh acres). If the area irrigated in Rabi is also taken into account, the gap between both the regions would further widen, since, no water is made available to the farmers during the Rabi season in Telangana. Even taking the cultivable areas into consideration the ratios will slightly change to 2.60:1. Thus, the area irrigated in Telangana under major projects, in any year, is much lower than that of Andhra and therefore incomparable.
ACTUAL AYACUT IRRIGATED (KHARIFF) IN MAJOR PROJECTS
(Lakh Acres)
S. No: Name of the Project: 2006-07
Telangana
1. Nizamsagar 1.30
2. SRSP 6.27
3. NSLC 4.00*
4. Jurala 1.02
5. RDS 0.31
Sub Total : 12.9
Andhra
6. Vamsadhara 1.87
7. Godavari Delta 10.13
8. Krishna Delta 10.03
9. Pennar System including Somasila 0.24
10. KC Canal 2.72
11. TBP LLC 0.20
12. TBP HLC 0.89
13. Yeleru 0.53
14. NSRC 6.5
15. NSLC 2.5*
16. TGP 0.73
17. SRBC 0.60
Sub Total : 39.1
Grand Total : 52.01
Ratio of area irrigated in
Andhra to Telangana: 3.03:1
Percentage of area irrigated to cultivable area in Telangana: 7%
Percentage of area irrigated to cultivable area in Andhra: 18.2%
Ratio of area irrigated in
Andhra to Telangana (considering respective cultivable areas) 2.6:1
* Approximate
Source: Outcome budget for Major, Medium and Minor Irrigation of Government of Andhra Pradesh for the year, 2007-08.
Different statistics at different occasions:
It is noticed that the Government is presenting different statistics at different occasions, to suit their convenience. The Director, Economics and Statistics present one type of statistics and the Irrigation and Command Area Development Department furnish other. To cite an example, the areas irrigated in Telangana and Andhra at the time of merger as presented by the Director of Economics and Statistics are 20.02 lakh acres and 51.45 lakh acres respectively, whereas the Irrigation and Command Area Development Department furnish these figures as 3.5 lakh acres and 30 lakh acres respectively. Same figures as worked out for the present year by the former are 43.7 lakh acres and 72.4 lakh acres as compared to 54.14 and 100.01 by the latter. One would wonder which is correct and what is to be taken into account.
MICRO IRRIGATION:
Under Jalayagnam Programme, the Government have taken up a number of lift irrigation schemes for Telangana. It was proposed to utilize 1 TMC of water for 10,000 acres of ayacut under this scheme. For example, Bheema Project has an ayacut of 2 lakh acres and the proposed utilization was 20 TMC. All of sudden, the Government has issued a controversial G.O. No. 34, dated 09-02-2007; (at Annexure-XXXVII) introducing Micro Irrigation under all the lift schemes of Telangana. Vide this G.O. all the major Lift Irrigation Projects 100% ayacut is proposed for Micro Irrigation duly proposing 15,000 acres for 1 TMC of water. With the introduction of this G.O., the field channels will no more be required and the water will be supplied to the crops directly, through Sprinkler and Drip System by using power. The Government’s objective apparently is two-fold (1) to drastically reduce the allocation of water to the lift schemes of Telangana. (2) To make the irrigation a costly affair, so that the people would opt out from agricultural business.
The Government have thoughtlessly introduced the G.O., even without thinking whether it would be possible to irrigate around 50 lakh acres, which are proposed under lift schemes in Telangana, through Micro Irrigation. The Government never paid any attention, whether irrigation of crops through Micro Irrigation on such a big scale is adopted any where in the Country or elsewhere. On one hand, the Government issued the order to bring all the lift irrigation schemes under this programme and on the other hand stated a pilot Project will be taken up under AMR Project in Nalgonda as an experimental basis.
The National Water Policy (2001) emphasized that Sprinkler and Drip system of irrigation should be adopted wherever feasible. The Water Management Manual of Ministry of Water Resources, the Water Management Publication of Indian National Academy of Engineering, the Publications on ‘Sprinkler Irrigation’ and ‘Drip Irrigation’ of Indian National Committee on Irrigation and Drainage, Publication of Micro Irrigation Manual of Water Technology Centre, IARI and proceedings of National Work Shop on Micro Irrigation of Ministry of Agriculture have clearly brought out that Micro Irrigation is most suited for horticultural crops, Vegetables etc. The limitation for adopting this method is its high initial cost, which is beyond the purchasing capacity of small and marginal farmers and thus mainly adopted by large farmers. Even in the developed Country like U.S.A. not even 40% of the irrigated area is practiced under Micro Irrigation. Due to high initial cost, poor institutional support system, lack of skilled human resources etc. the Micro Irrigation has not been adopted by the farmers in the Country. Even in the advanced States like Gujarat and Maharashtra, the system did not go well with the farmers. Knowing fully well the farmers of Telangana are poor and would be unable to meet the high cost associated which Drip and Sprinkler System, the way in which the Government have issued the orders without consulting the experts or farmers only leads to thinking that the Government’s action is deliberate, to steal the waters of Telangana and keep the farmers of Telangana perennially below the poverty line.
MODERNIZATION OF SCHEMES
In Coastal Andhra all the three deltas, namely, Godavari, Krishna and Penna have been modernized. Lot of expenditure has been incurred by the Government towards the same. While Krishna Delta modernization was taken up during the Andhra Government’s tenure and completed in 1956, modernization of other two deltas was carried out in Andhra Pradesh. K.C. Canal was modernized with Japanese assistance recently. However, not even a single modernization scheme in Telangana; either RDS or Sadarmatt has been contemplated by Andhra rulers. It is only recently, RDS is taken up for modernization, as per the Government report.
KC CANAL:
KC Canal is envisaged to draw 39.9 TMC of Tungabhadra waters. Of This quantity 8 TMC has been sacrificed in favour of Srisailam Right Bank Canal. It was expected that the KC Canal would manage the entire envisaged ayacut with 31.9 TMC only. However, in reality each year it is drawing more than 50-60 TMC, illegally, taking the share of Telangana from RDS as explained in earlier paras.
Now, Government unethically decided that 10 TMC of Krishna water would be diverted from Srisailam to KC Canal, so as to compensate the loss, which it has under gone on account of curtailment of its share of 10 TMC of Tungabhadra waters to be supplied to Tungabhadra High Level Canal. However, the Government has accorded approval to divert 5 TMC of water to KC Canal from Srisailam Reservoir, vide G.O. No. 196, dated 31-08-2007. Even on earlier occasions also Krishna Waters were dropped into Nippulavagu, through Pothireddipadu Head Regulator to irrigate KC Canal ayacut, as can be seen from the excerpts from the budget speech of 1987-88 made in Andhra Pradesh Assembly.
(Relevant extract at Annexure-XXXVIII)
It is not understood how Government takes a decision in violation of Bachawat Tribunal. KC Canal is not to draw any Krishna waters as per the award of the Tribunal. But the present Government does everything, at its will, to benefit Rayalaseema area in particular and Andhra area in general, at the cost of Telangana.
SUNKESULA BARRAGE:
Sunkesula anicut was modernized recently with Japanese assistance and now it is a barrage with a storage capacity of 1.2 TMC. It is essentially aimed to serve the KC Canal. In the old anicut there were few openings to release water to the river for the use of downstream users of Telangana region. In the new Barrage Gate No. 30 was reserved for this purpose and therefore, it was supposed to be kept open. Most surprisingly, illegally, the Project Authorities have made arrangements to close the gate on a permanent basis to prevent the water to flow downstream. In spite of several requests made by the downstream villagers that they are suffering for want of drinking water, the authorities did not open the gate, which was required to be done not only from humanitarian angle also from environmental consideration.
This reveals how the Government is showing favours to Andhra areas under pressure and not bothered about the interests of downtrodden and weaklings of Telangana.
JALAYAGNAM – A FARCE
The Jalayagnam, a mighty and prestigious Project undertaken by the Government in the year 2004 proved to be a farce and can be considered as a joke of the decade. When it started, it was announced that 26 Projects out of which 8 would be completed in two years, and the rest 18 would be completed in five years, at a cost of Rs. 46,000 crores and would provide irrigation to a new area of 65 lakh acres. Five years have elapsed. Not even a single Project worth the name is complete, but around Rs. 50,000 crores have been spent on this programme. As if this stunt is not adequate, the Government has increased the number of Projects to 82 and they intend to bring 1 crore acres under irrigation besides stabilizing a few lakh acres.
Except a few schemes like Flood Flow Canal, SRSP stage-II, most of them have no clearances from the Planning Commission. The schemes which have been formulated and are under construction in Krishna basin are dependant on surplus flows (not dependable flows) for which new Tribunal is yet to sanction the allocation. Lot of Projects have the problem of land acquisition. Mega Projects such as Polavaram are facing legal problems and are under the purview of Supreme Court. Inter-State problems affect many projects. Unless Union Government comes to help the Projects, they may not be completed in another 30-40 years. The cost of the 82 Projects is estimated as Rs. 1.76 lakh crores. But this may go up to Rs. 3-4 lakh crores by the time of completion.
The Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) for the year ended 31st March, 2008 has clearly brought out that “the Projects were awarded without prior acquisition of land and this resulted in majority of the Projects on which substantial expenditure has been incurred getting stalled mid-way and non-creation of envisaged irrigation potential”. Further, the Report stated that “ even in respect of the Projects where the irrigation potential is stated to have been created, no supporting ayacut registers, water release schedules, etc., were maintained by the Water Users Associations. Thus, the irrigation potential stated to have been created and utilized could not be verified”
As far as Telangana is concerned the Government has announced a number of lift schemes. A scheme like Pranahitha-Chevella costs around Rs. 40,000 crores. Many Schemes have not yet been investigated and detailed Project reports are not prepared. Even in case of SRSP Stage-II, which is an approved Project by the Planning Commission, Government is confused as to from which source they should feed the canals. Huge power is required to run these lift schemes. The power schemes have not yet commenced. Without supply of power, no body knows how these lift schemes, even if they are completed, would function. Everything is in pell-mell.
POWER PROJECTS UNDER BOT
It is assessed that the power requirement is around 6100 MW to make all the above lift schemes operational. The present generating capacity of the State is 7800 MW. Obviously, the State has to take up a number of power schemes on war footing. Further, the Government have time and again announced that free power will be provided to the farmers for their lift schemes. Now, it is understood that the Government have contemplated to hand over the proposed power projects to private agencies on BOT basis, instead of Genco, Government Agency. It is not understood, how the Government would be able to make available the power in adequate quantity to the farmers, free of cost, if all the power projects are handed over to private agencies. Evidently, the Government is saying something and doing something. It is apprehended, that Government would not be able to provide energy to the farmers either free of cost or at affordable price, if the power schemes are with the private agencies.
Why all this Drama?
Appeasing the Telangana with number of schemes which may not materialize in the near future, for want of funds and energy and Coastal Andhra with Polavaram, which may not see the day of the light, is done only with the sole intention of diverting as much Krishna waters as possible from Srisailam through Pothireddipadu Head Regulator and schemes such as HNSS to the Rayalaseema. In order to compensate the loss due to such act of diversion of dependable flows from Srisailam the downstream users are promised with Pulichinthala, Polavaram and Dummugudem-Nagarjunasagar Tail Pond.
Government is fully aware that they have no funds for execution of the Jalayagnam programme. They also know that unless the projects are cleared by Planning Commission neither funds from Union Government, nor from any external agency would be available. Still Government is making tall promises that Projects namely, Polavaram, Pranahitha-Chevella, Yellampally, Devadula etc. would be brought under National Projects Category. Further, Government is publicizing that it is spending around fifty percent of irrigation funds in Telangana and creating sufficient irrigation potential. Either, spending huge sums (which mostly are pocketed by contractors, politicians and officials) or creating potential is not the answer. The real problem is how much water is delivered and how many acreages are benefited. The Government draws flak on the query.
The Government have come up recently with a full page advertisement in the vernacular Press, ( Annexure – XXXVIIIA ) highlighting their achievements under ‘Jalayagnam’. In the category of the Projects completed, they have listed out 12 Projects through which they have claimed a new ayacut of 1, 31,254 acres besides stabilization of 1, 89, 379 acres. Even, assuming the claims of the Government to be correct, it is seen that in Telangana only one medium scheme namely Gaddena Suddavagu has been completed with an ayacut of just 14,000 acres (against the total of 1,31,254 acres) and two Projects have been completed by means of which around 90,000 acres have been stabilized. In the category of Projects which have been partially completed claims have been made that in Telangana 3, 80,800 acres have been added as new ayacut. The claim of the Government is utterly false, since, neither Alimineti Madhava Reddy Project nor Sriram Sagar Project Phase - II, (the major Projects included in the list) have added any new ayacut so far, since, the distributory system is incomplete and particularly the field channels are not dug so far. The position could be verified from the field visits by the Hon’ble Members of the Committee.
The above acts only show how the Government is trying to mislead the Telangana people by raising false hopes. While dreams of Telangana would remain unfulfilled which the Government is fully aware, the scheme of diverting Godavari waters to Krishna basin and Krishna waters to Rayalaseema would materialize.
Release of G.O.s with Jet Speed:
It has been observed that the Government will not take much time to issue G.O., if the Project is to benefit either Coastal Andhra or Rayalaseema provided they are the pet Projects of the decision maker. The classic examples those can be cited are: 1) Polavaram and 2) Pothireddipadu. In case of Polavaram, the Chief Engineer sends the proposals to the Government on 24-08-2004 and the G.O. is issued sanctioning the Project on 10-09-2004, just within 17 days. In case of Pothireddipadu, the proposals of the Chief Engineer are sent on 20-08-2005 and the Government issued the G.O. approving the scheme on 13-09-2005, just within three weeks. Similar facility was never available to any of the Projects of Telangana.
The apprehensions of formation of Telangana State:
The Government is fully aware that the formation of Telangana state is certain and may materialize at any time. Therefore, they are showing undue haste in completing the Rayalaseema Projects. Infact, the work is going on at Pothireddipadu Head Regulator with jet speed, under search lights and full police protection. These sorts of arrangements are never seen at any other Project. The Members of the Commission may kindly verify the position during their field visit to Pothireddipadu Head Regulator. The Government is not at all bothered whether the Telangana Projects are constructed or not. They only want that before the formation of the new State, all the Projects in Rayalaseema region should get ready, so that they can claim waters on ‘prior use’ basis later.
Telangana a rich region remaining so poor:
In the Memorandum by the Andhra Pradesh Regional Committee on Pochampadu Project it is stated “The soils in Telangana area mostly red and loamy are eminently suited for intensive irrigation… The cultivators, whose main food is rice and main crop paddy, are ever ready to make immediate use of irrigation facilities, when ever the later are made available to them…. Telangana is a deficit in food in spite of the excellent possibilities of irrigation by river water. The River systems in Telangana carry more water…. One does not find many parallels in the Country, where such a rich region is so poor as is the case with Telangana” (Extract vide Annexure-XXXIX). In the same memorandum Dr. M. Chenna Reddy, the President Member on Sub Committees of Planning and Development of Andhra Pradesh Regional Committee explained that while in State like Punjab, there was more than 50% irrigation by Canals, in Telangana only 2% was by Canals, although the capacity of the rivers of Telangana was more than that of the rivers in the Punjab. (Extract vide Annexure-XXXX).
The U.O. Note of Planning and Local Administration Department of 12-01-1960 has clearly brought out that there was a gap of 12.67% in the percentage of gross area irrigated to total available cultivable area between the two regions of Andhra and Telangana up to 1955-56 (before merger). This gap has increased to 18.08% after the development of various schemes proposed in the first and second five year plans. (Vide Annexure-XXXXI). In the 19th report of Sub Committee on Planning of Andhra Pradesh Regional Committee it is stated that “there is much difference in proportion of expenditures of both the regions”.
(Extract vide Annexure-XXXXII).
From the above, it is evident that from the beginning the Telangana region was neglected intentionally, by not sanctioning the Projects, by not providing funds and delaying the Projects. The importance of irrigation to Telangana was realized long time back as can be seen from the report of the Indian Irrigation Commission of 1901-03, page 238-quoted below
“General Conclusions: - with reference then to the general question of the utility of the irrigation in Hyderabad it may be said that in the Telangana and certain portions of the Carnatic tracts, which comprised more than half the total area of Hyderabad, irrigation is vitally essential to the well-being of the people and to the general prosperity of the State and that the soil is suited to it and the people are eager for it…..”. (Extract vide Annexure-XXXXIII)
Conclusions:
Telangana was a State before 1956 under the name of Hyderabad. Two mighty Rivers having catchments of 68.5% (Krishna) and 79% (Godavari) flow through Telangana. The soils are excellent and suitable for cultivation being red and loamy. The cultivators are hard working and are ever ready to make use of irrigation facilities. Having such excellent resources, one would wonder why this region remained backward even after 55 years of merger with Andhra, which is prosperous in agriculture, because of Canal network. This leads to a simple conclusion that this region has not remained backward on its own but purposely kept backward by the vested interests.
The merger which was done against the wishes of Telanganaites was because of vast water resources available in Krishna and Godavari. The love of Andhra towards Telangana is not borne out of affection because of language or culture, only because of excellent water resources amongst many other virtues, which would create a mass wealth. One TMC of water would easily fetch around 4 crores in each season. Telangana, in integrated Andhra Pradesh State has lost thousands of TMCs of Krishna and Godavari waters by the unethical, illegal and other dubious means adopted by Andhra rulers. There is no other way to bring out Telangana from the clutches of Andhra and place it on of the glory and prosperity except by creating a separate State.
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