Telangana, Maharashtra sign historic water-sharing agreements

In a program organised at the Sahyadri guest house in  Mumbai, Telangana chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao (KCR) and Maharastra chief minister D Fadnavis affixed their initials on the agreements. 

 

It's a record of sorts for two neighbouring states in India to settle long-pending river water disputes in the span of just two years. 

 

Ever since he assumed charge as chief minister of the newly created state of Telangana, K Chandrasekhar Rao has repeatedly stated that the disputes would be settled amicably with Maharashtra.

 

He visited Mumbai twice earlier to discuss the matter with his Maharashtra counterpart. In between these visits, a number of meetings took place between the irrigation ministers and officials of the two states. 

 

These meetings finally culminated in the signing of the agreement between the two states, amid protests by the opposition Congress back in Telangana. 

Under today's agreement, Telangana will construct three projects namely Medigadda, Tummidihatti and Chankara-Korta projects on the Godavari, Pranahita and Penganga respectively.

 

The Medigadda project is planned as part of the Kaleswaram reservoir, at a height of 100 metres, with an impounding capacity of 16 TMC. About 18.9 lakh acres are expected to be irrigated under the project in Warangal, Karimnagar, Medak, Nizamabad, Nalgonda and Rangareddy districts.

 

TheTummidijhatti project planned at the height of 148 metres FRL (Full Reservoir Level) on River Godavari's tributary Pranahitha, will store 1.8 tmc water.

 

The third project covered under today's agreements is the Chanaka–Korata project, which would be taken up jointly by Telangana and Maharashtra at 213 metres FRL on the Penganga River, with 105 tmc capacity.  

As much as 102 tmc of water will be utilised by Telangana and five tmc by the neighbouring state and parts of Adilabad district.

 

"The model we followed to strike an agreement between Telangana and Maharashtra will definitely help other neighbouring states to resolve water-sharing disputes between them," KCR said.

 

For his part, hailing the agreement, Fadnavis said states could easily prosper if they settled the differences in a give-and-take manner.

 

Maharashtra has agreed to the proposed water projects on the three rivers as the ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi changed the designs of the projects (initially planned for united Andhra Pradesh) to ensure minimal submergence in Maharashtra. For example, the height of the Tummadihatti barrage in the Pranahita River was reduced to 148 metres from the originally proposed 152 metres. 

 

The Congress, however, gave a call to the people to observe this Tuesday as a 'black day' in the history of the new Telangana state.

At several places in the state, Congress workers staged sit-ins wearing black badges. In a protest program organized at the Gandhi Bhavan in Hyderabad, Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee president N Uttam Kumar Reddy, opposition leader in Assembly K Jana Reddy, opposition leader in Council Ali Shabbir and Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee working president Bhatti Vikramartha condemned KCR's agreements with Maharashtra as a complete sell-out of the state's interests to Maharashtra. 

 

They led a rally to the Hyderabad collector's office. After a dharna, they presented a memorandum to the Collector. 

 

They rejected the redesigning of projects, claiming the redesigns would help Maharashtra more than Telangana.