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Watered Down
The Andhra
chief minister's game plan of appeasing those
in the parched Telangana region with a grand lift irrigation proposal
backfires. INDIA TODAY's Asscociate Editor Amarnath K. Menon explains
why.
When Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. Chandrababu
Naidu proposed a lift irrigation project that could cater to five lakh
acres of land in Warangal, Karimnagar, Medak and Nalgonda, he reckoned
that the people of these parched districts would jump at the idea. But
as he prepares to lay the foundation stone for the Rs 1,800 crore project
at Devadula on June 16, he is not half
as sure. Already under pressure from the governments of Karnataka, Maharashtra
and Chhatisgarh over the issue of water sharing from the Godavari and
Krishna rivers, Naidu is finding himself in deeper waters now.
For the people of Warangal, Karimnagar, Medak and Nalgonda, which fall
under the backward Telangana region, Naidu's game plan was not difficult
to fathom. "This is gimmick garu at his best," says the belligerent
Telangana Rashtra Samithi founder K. Chandrasekhar Rao, dismissing the
project which is to be named after a local leader "as yet another
attempt to deceive the
people of the region." Indeed, by using the Godavari waters to irrigate
these arid tracts, Naidu calculated that he could scuttle the agitation
for a separate Telangana state. The country's biggest irrigation project,
it is projected to lift water over 300 metres through a series of 14 balancing
reservoirs and is scheduled to be ready in four years if the cash-strapped
Government manages to arrange the funds for it.
The Devadula project idea, however, has few takers as it means putting
on hold an earlier Rs 4,000 crore Inchampally scheme. It was also not
part of any perspective plan for irrigation and development of the Telangana
region. Work on pending projects like Lendi in Nizamabad and the Sriramsagar
flood flow canal for which the foundation stone was laid is still to take
off despite all clearances having been given. The flow of funds to ongoing
projects like the first and second phases of the Sriramsagar was dismal
and last but not the least, the techno-economic feasibility studies for
projects at Inchampally, Yellampally and Dummagudem were either incomplete
or yet to begin. As far as the people of Telangana were concerned, the
latest project was yet another reflection of the Government's ad hoc approach
to the issue
of water.
An inter-state agreement for the Inchampally project, intended to irrigate
1.57 lakh acres and run a 975 mw hydel power station, was inked way back
in August 1978 and a joint control board was set up to to begin work.
But it ran into trouble over the height of the dam. The governments of
Madhya Pradesh earlier and Chhatisgarh now have been opposed to raising
the height
of the dam above 95 metres as they were apprehensive of more villages
being flooded. Chhatisgarh Chief Minister Ajit Jogi has made it clear
that will do his best to stall the project.
Maharashtra's Vilas Rao Deshmukh has no problems with the dam's height
but shares Karnataka Chief Minister S.M. Krishna view that Naidu is taking
arbitrary decisions and initiating work on projects that involve inter-state
flow of water. Karnataka is also accusing Andhra Pradesh of flouting the
norms for sharing of Krishna waters as spelt out in the Bachawat Award.
"Krishna should lead an all-party delegation to the prime minister
in protest against the repeated violations and unlawful building of feeder
canals to use the water of the Krishna," says an angry
Ramakrishna Hegde, former chief minister of Karnataka. The peeved Irrigation
Minister H.K. Patil and Agriculture Minister T.B. Jayachandra have also
raised similar objections.
By proposing the Devadula project, Naidu hoped there would be no more
confrontation with his neighbours. Located well inside Andhra territory,
Devadula did not entail sharing of waters between states. But the fact
remains that the project is yet to be cleared by the Central Water Commission.
To make matters worse, Naidu has failed to keep up his promise to tap
the Godavari waters, made while presenting the state budget as finance
minister under N.T.Rama Rao in 1995. It took a year after he created the
Godavari Water Utilisation Authority in April 1999 for it to have its
first meeting.
"The CEO will have to create a distinct entity to launch and develop
irrigation projects of this size but only after he has found the funds
and gets the mandatory clearances if he is serious about it," argues
M. Shashidhar Reddy of the Congress, a former state environment minister,
who floated the forum for the utilisation of Godavari waters in 1998.
Nearly 79 per cent of the catchment area of the Godavari, like 69 per
cent that of the
Krishna, is in Telangana but the region barely gets 25 per cent of the
river water. With Naidu's calculations going awry, it is unlikely that
there will be much change in the coming years as well.
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