New Delhi: The Centre has told the Supreme Court that the limited aspect of sharing the water from Krishna, between the newly created state of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, can be referred to the Water Dispute Tribunal instead of dragging other stakeholders like Karnataka and Maharashtra into it. After Telangana was separated from Andhra Pradesh on June 2, 2014, it sought to be considered as an entity separate from the parent state in distribution of Krishna water among stakeholder states.
Additional Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the Centre, told a bench of Justices Dipak Misra and Prafulla C Pant that there was no need for a fresh adjudication of the entire issue. The tribunal may be asked to decide the share of Telangana out of the water already allocated to Andhra Pradesh. The bench, meanwhile, asked the Centre to file an affidavit in the matter and fixed a batch of petitions for hearing. He also said that a fresh reference was required to be sent to the Krishna Water Dispute Tribunal II for fresh allocation of water in view of passage of the Reorganisation of the State of Andhra Pradesh Act. Taking note of the plea of Telangana, the court said it seemed that its request had got “independent character qua Karnataka, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh” even though the tribunal had passed its award in December 2010.
It said one of the questions to be considered was whether the quantity of water already allocated to Andhra Pradesh could be demarcated between Andhra Pradesh and Telanagana or, could Telangana get separate allocations. The court, however, kept all the issues under the Inter-State River Water Disputes Act of 1956 open for consideration. It also said that the inter-state water disputes “should be put to rest at the earliest.”
