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Journalism of Courage
One river-related controversy 8212; over the Cauvery waters 8212; seems to have died down for the moment, despite AIADMK leader J. Jayalalitha. But another 8212; over the Almatti dam 8212; refuses to fade away. Things may be quiet at the moment but Almatti has the potential to blow up into yet another major water row as the year 2000 approaches.
As in the case of Cauvery, Karnataka is the upper riparian State in this dispute as well with the Krishna flowing into the Bay of Bengal on the Andhra Pradesh coast. The year 2000 becomes crucial because that is when the Bachawat Award comes up for review.
The bone of contention is the Almatti dam in Karnataka. Lower riparianAndhra Pradesh claims that Karnataka is increasing the height of the dam to impound waters in excess of its allocated share. But Karnataka defends its case by saying that the waters that would be impounded would be let into the course of the river after using it for generation of hydro-electric power.
Here is the controversy in a nutshell:
The Krishna river originates in Maharashtra, flows through Karnataka and then Andhra Pradesh and finally into the Bay of Bengal. Karnataka wants to increase the height of the Almatti dam on the Krishna near Bagewadi in Bijapur district 8212; from the originally planned 519 metres to 524.25 metres 8212; to generate electricity.
Despite assurances from Karnataka that not a drop over the quota would be used, neighbouring Andhra Pradesh believes that the mere availability of water in the dam would lead to unauthorised use. So the Andhra Pradesh Government has been arguing that Karnataka, by raising the dam height, will use more water than it is entitled to before the riverflows into Andhra.While Andhra Pradesh says increasing the dam8217;s height is illegal, Karnataka maintains that the Planning Commission had accorded its approval in 1990 for increasing the height of the dam to generate electricity.
Andhra Pradesh says that by raising the dam8217;s height, Karnataka would use up nearly 400 TMC of Krishna water instead of 173 TMC allocated for the Upper Krishna Project UKP. Karnataka, on the other hand, argues that the additional water impounded by the raised dam would be used for generation of electricity and will be let out into the river to flow into Andhra Pradesh.
Andhra Pradesh argues that Karnataka is trying to irrigate 7.5 lakh hectares against the 5.8 lakh hectare-limit imposed by Bachawat Award while Karnataka maintains that it is not violating any provisions of the Award. While Andhra Pradesh accuses Karnataka of trying to usurp Krishna water and deny Andhra its share, Karnataka says Andhra is usurping more than its share through its Telugu-Ganga project.
AndhraPradesh contends that it is a question of survival for its farmers while its neighbour says Andhra Pradesh is 8220;raking up a needless controversy8221;.
A public interest litigation was filed in the Andhra Pradesh High court on this issue and the court on July 24, 1996 issued an interim direction to Karnataka to maintain status quo with regard to dam construction the order was later withdrawn.
The issue blew up two years ago when the then United Front Government led by H.D.Deve Gowda reportedly assured Karnataka that it would provide Rs 200-crore assistance to the state for the Almatti project under the newly launched Accelerated Irrigation Development Scheme. The Telugu Desam party led by N. Chandrababu Naidu linked it to the controversy over the dam8217;s height and even threatened to withdraw support to the UF Goverment of which it was a constituent then, if Gowda failed to prevent Karnataka from raising the dam8217;s height.
The Centre denied that it ever assured Karnataka of providing a Rs 200-croreassistance. But Gowda swung into action immediately and convened a meeting of the chief ministers of Karnataka and Andhra pradesh but the meeting turned a damp squib. The UF steering committee met subsequently and set up a four-member committee of Chief Ministers from non-Krishna riparian states to find a solution to the wrangle. This committee set up another nine-member expert committee to study the issue and report if there was any violation of the Bachawat Award.
But the study by the expert committee was shelved on legal grounds and the expert committee was converted into an 8220;unofficial team8221; to ascertain the facts. This led to a fresh controversy over the propriety of such an exercise.
Later, the Andhra Pradesh Government filed a petition before the Supreme Court seeking direction to Karnataka and other concerned, restraining them from raising the height of the Alamatti dam.
Meanwhile, a suit by Karnataka inter alia sought the Apex court8217;s direction to Andhra Pradesh and other concerned forimplementation Scheme B of the Bachawat Award in regard to distribution of surplus Krishna waters.
