HYDERABAD, May 21: Even as the Andhra Pradesh government is in a quandary over the course of action it should adopt to stall Karnataka from over-utilising Krishna water, another riparian state Maharashtra has added to its woes by violating the award of the Krishna Water Disputes Tribunal (Bachawat award) in as many as 16 cases.

The issue came to light during a review meeting called by the Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu. The meeting went into all aspects of the Bachawat award and the instances of `violation' by the upper riparian state Karnataka in regard to the raising of the height of the Almatti dam and the proposal to take up the Upper Tunga project in a big way.

During the review, it was brought to the chief minister's notice that Maharashtra had taken up a number of medium, minor and lift irrigation schemes and 16 of them were outside the scope of the tribunal. By developing such ``unauthorised'' schemes, Maharashtra would be creating an irrigation potential of over 21 lakh acres in the Krishna basin.

The Andhra Pradesh government is of the view that as sugarcane is the main crop grown in the command area of the Krishna in Maharashtra, farmers in that state would utilise 1,100 TMC (thousand million cubic feet) of Krishna water.

This would be against 585 TMC of water allocated to that state in Bachawat award. Utilisation of Krishna water in such a large scale would have a disastrous effect on the irrigation and power systems in downstream Andhra Pradesh.

Under such circumstances, the State government felt, the Central Water Commission (CWC) ought to have informed Andhra Pradesh about the schemes being taken up by Maharashtra, more so when viewed from the inter-state angle. The Andhra Pradesh government is not aware of the number of schemes that have already received the CWC's technical clearance and whether they are being funded under Centrally-sponsored schemes like the Accelerated Irrigation Benefit Programme and the Rural Infrastructure Development Fund.

During the review, it was suggested that the chief minister immediately communicate the State's protest to the Union Minister for Water Resources.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.