Hyderabad: Taking objection to a barrage allegedly being built by Karnataka without clearances from relevant authorities across Krishna river, the Telangana government today requested Centre to restrict the neighbouring state from proceeding with its construction.
“It has been brought to the notice of Government of Telangana that the Government of Karnataka is going ahead with the construction of a new barrage of about 1.170 km long with 194 gates on river Krishna, near Gurjapur (V) in Raichur district, about three km upstream of Krishna-Bhima confluence,” S K Joshi, Principal Secretary (Irrigation) of Telangana said in a letter to the Commissioner of Ministry of Water Resources, Delhi, copies of which were made available to media.
“Karnataka had projected several projects before KWDT-II (Krishna Water Disputes Tribunal) and also storages enabling it to use Krishna waters from out of its allocated share. Further, Karnataka had submitted a Master Plan before KWDT-II. The construction of this barrage across river Krishna was not contemplated in the Master Plan,” the letter said.
Construction of such a big structure with substantially high storage capacity on the inter-state river Krishna would obstruct both the early flows as well as lean flows, it said.
“We strongly believe that the barrage under construction has no clearances either from CWC or CEA. As such, I request you to kindly to intervene in the matter and direct the Government of Karnataka not to proceed with the construction of barrage pending the clearances from the relevant authorities,” the letter said.
In a separate letter, Joshi asked the Karnataka government not to proceed further with the project pending clearances.
“In view of the above, I request you to kindly furnish the Detailed Project Reports along with CWC/GOI/CEA clearances of the afore-said barrage to government of Telangana, urgently. Further, I request you not further proceed with the project pending clearances from the relevant authorities,” the letter said.