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AP firm on foiling Karnataka Almatti plan

Syed Amin Jafri in Hyderabad

Andhra Pradesh is determined to foil neighbouring Karnataka's plans to raise the height of Almatti dam to the detriment of the lower riparian state.

The AP government is mounting pressure on the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government not to accord approval for the Upper Krishna Project Stage-II for raising the height of Almatti dam but to judiciously implement the decisions of the Krishna Water Disputes Tribunal.

AP Chief Minister Nara Chandrababu Naidu had led an all-party delegation to New Delhi last week to urge the prime minister to protect the interests of the lower riparian states which are being jeopardised by Karnataka. The latter is bent upon raising the height of Almatti dam to corner more than its due share of Krishna waters.

The contention of Andhra Pradesh is that Karnataka is executing many projects on the Krishna river in violation of the KWDT (Bachawat) Award.

Andhra Pradesh wants the Indian government not to accord permission to any of these projects. Chandrababu Naidu has made it clear that the state is not in favour of a political solution but it would await the verdict of the Supreme Court on the issue.

Till the court pronounces its judgment, Andhra Pradesh has urged the Indian government to remain impartial and withhold any further clearances to Karnataka on Upper Krishna and other projects.

The all-party delegation from AP, in a memorandum to Vajpayee, claimed that by raising the dam height beyond 512 metres, Karnataka wanted to utilise over 400 TMC (thousand million cubic feet) of Krishna waters, which is in far excess of the 173 TMC projected by that state.

The Andhra Pradesh government also contends that the proposed capacity of Almatti reservoir will delay the release of water downstream to Andhra Pradesh so substantially that it will virtually disrupt the agricultural system and power generation in the state.

The all-party delegation also complained that the Indian government, overlooking the objections raised by Andhra Pradesh, had granted sanctions/ approvals and in-principle clearances to various schemes.

The Almatti row is now pending before the Supreme Court. The apex court, in its orders pronounced on December 2, referred the dispute among Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra over raising of the height of Almatti dam beyond 509 metres and other contentious issues relating to the sharing of the Krishna waters to a constitutional bench.

Observing that the dispute among the contesting states deserved to be heard at the earliest, a three-member bench of the Supreme Court, headed by Justice S B Majmudar, suggested January 2000 for the hearing by the constitution bench to commence.

While the legal tangle on the issue persists, the Andhra Pradesh government is "perturbed" over the statements by Karnataka Chief Minister S M Krishna and others that "come what may, Karnataka will not compromise on its decision to raise the height of Almatti dam to 524 metres''.

S M Krishna, who also led an all-party delegation of his state to Vajpayee on November 28, reiterated his state's stand on the issue and sought early clearances from the Indian government for various irrigation schemes for utilising Krishna waters.

The controversy over Almatti dam first surfaced in 1996 when the Karnataka government announced its plans to raise the height of the dam from 512.2 metres approved by the Planning Commission in 1978 to 528.25 metres under a revised scheme.

With this increase in height, the storage of Almatti dam will increase from 42 TMC sanctioned in 1978 to 227 TMC, thereby directly affecting the flow of Krishna waters to Andhra Pradesh. This will mean that Karnataka draws more than its allocated share of 700 TMC of Krishna waters.

The AP government was alarmed when Krishna Bhagya Jala Nigam Limited was set up by the Karnataka government to mobilise resources to complete the Upper Krishna project by 2000 AD.

Chandrababu Naidu took up the matter with then prime minister P V Narasimha Rao in March 1996. The AP Assembly also adopted a resolution demanding the Indian government to intervene in the matter and stop the "unauthorised construction" of Almatti dam to impound more water.

Andhra Pradesh also took exception to the 'in-principle' clearance given by the Central Electricity Authority in January 1996 for generation of 1,170 megawatts of hydro power at Almatti dam at an estimated cost of Rs 36 billion.

During the tenure of United Front prime minister H D Deve Gowda, a conference of the chief ministers of the Krishna basin states was convened in August 1996 on the Almatti issue.

Chandrababu Naidu expressed serious concern on the issue of raising of the height of Almatti dam. The steering committee of the UF in August 1996 constituted a panel comprising chief ministers of West Bengal, Bihar, Assam and Tamil Nadu which in turn constituted a six-member expert committee with officials from Assam, Bihar, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal to look into the issue.

The expert committee, with D P Ghosal as convenor, submitted its report in January 1997, expressing the view that "it is not necessary at present to build a bigger storage of 227 TMC at Almatti dam with top of shutters at 524.25 metres".

The committee also felt that "allowing for probable loss in storage capacity due to siltation, the FRL on the top of the shutters may be fixed for the present at +519.6 metres and the gates manufactured and erected accordingly".

The expert committee said that "Almatti dam, with FRL at +519.6 metres, will provide a storage of about 123 TMC which, along with the storage of 37.8 TMC at Narayanpur, will be quite adequate to take care of the annual requirement of 173 TMC presently envisaged under Upper Krishna project".

Not satisfied with the report of the expert committee, the Karnataka government took the issue to the Supreme Court nearly three years ago.

The Karnataka government has also made a counter-complaint against Andhra Pradesh for embarking on large projects such as the Srisailam Left Bank Canal, Telugu Ganga project, Srisailam Right Bank Canal, which would affect the interests of Karnataka while sharing the surplus Krishna waters when the Bachawat Award comes up for review after May 31, 2000 AD.

Now, Andhra Pradesh is awaiting the Supreme Court's verdict on the Almatti dam issue.

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