HYDERABAD: In less than a week, the Telangana government, for the second time, will skip the joint coordination committee meeting of the Godavari and Krishna River Management Boards scheduled to be held on Monday.

In separate letters to the two boards on Sunday, Special Chief Secretary (Irrigation) Rajat Kumar, while stating that the Telangana officials would not attend the meeting, recalled that the government had already expressed its inability to attend the meeting in a communication on August 3 because of its prior commitments to various”legal and court matters”.

Rajat Kumar also requested the chairpersons of the two boards to indicate another convenient date so that Telangana could attend the meeting.

The coordination committee held its first meeting on August 3 but Telangana gave it a miss, arguing that it would be in the fitness of things if the full board meetings of KRMB and GRMB are held to discuss sharing of waters between the two States before discussing pressure points in the gazette notification issued by the Jal Shakti Ministry, which brought all the 107 projects on both the rivers under the operational control of the two boards.

As Telangana did not attend the meeting on August 3, which was attended by an Andhra Pradesh representative, not much progress could be made. The Andhra Pradesh officials sought a few clarifications on how the Centre would be going about implementing the gazette notification which comes into effect from October 14. The board official fixed deadline for payment of seed money for running the two boards.

Telangana ill at ease

The Telangana government has been ill at ease ever since the gazette notification was issued as it wanted the Jal Shakti Ministry to decide the State’s share in the river waters before the projects on the two rivers were brought under the control of the river management boards.

Even Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao made the point amply clear at the Apex Council meeting held on October 6, 2020.

As the issue of notification is fait accompli now, Telangana wants the full board meetings of the KRMB and GRMB to be held before the coordination committee calls a meeting to iron out the pressure points in the gazette notification.

But, in the communication to the boards, the special chief secretary only asked the fixing of another date for Telangana to attend the meeting. At a review on irrigation on Saturday, the Chief Minister asked the officials to present the case of Telangana effectively at the meetings to ensure that it gets its rightful share.

The CM had already said that by issuing the notification, the Centre had done injustice to Telangana and described the construction of “illegal projects” by Andhra Pradesh as nothing but a display of dadagiri by its rulers, which cleared the doubts as to how the State felt over the way the Centre was disposed towards Telanana in resolving the issue.

Even though Chief Justice of India NV Ramana suggested mediation as the right method for resolving river water disputes between the two states, AP sought legal adjudication to the differences on river water disputes after which the CJI recently recused himself from hearing the arguments in the case in Supreme Court.

State also missed the first meeting held on August 3

The coordination committee held its first meeting on August 3 but Telangana gave it a miss, arguing that it would be in the fitness of things if the full board meetings of KRMB and GRMB are held to discuss sharing of waters between the two States before discussing pressure points in the gazette notification issued by the Jal Shakti Ministry