Centre recasts panel helping Krishna Board

• The Centre has reconstituted a committee that was tasked with assisting the Krishna River Management Board (KRMB).
• The new committee will be headed by A.K. Bajaj, former chairman of the Central Water Commission. Others on the board include Gopala Krishnan, R.P. Pandey, Pradeep Kumar Shukla and N.N. Rai.
• The committee is tasked with assisting the Krishna River Management Board prepare a manual on how projects, common to Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, ought to be handled. It also has to weigh in on how the Godavari waters ought to be transferred to the Krishna Basin in accordance with the Godavari Water Disputes Tribunal Award.

About Krishna water dispute
First KWDT:

• Krishna Water Disputes Tribunal (KWDT) is a tribunal set up by the government of India in 1969 under the Interstate River Water Disputes Act of 1956 to resolve the disputes between the states of Karnataka, Maharashtra, and Andhra Pradesh over sharing of Krishna river water.
• The dispute was mainly about the inter-state utilization of untapped surplus water. The Krishna Tribunal reached its decision in 1973, and the award was published in 1976. The award contended based on 75% dependability that the total quantum of water available for distribution was 2060 TMC(thousand million cubic feet).
• According to this  Andhra Pradesh got 800 TMC of water, Karnataka 700 TMC and Maharashtra 560 TMC. 

Second KWDT:

• In April 2004, the second KWDT, was constituted by the Government of India following requests by all three states.
• This tribunal has started its proceedings from 16.07.07.The allocation of available water was done according to 65% dependability, considering the records of flow of water for past 47 years.
• According to KWDT II, Andhra Pradesh got 1001 TMC of water, Karnataka 911 TMC and Maharashtra 666 TMC. Next review of water allocations will be after the year 2050. 
• The newly formed Telangana state is fourth riparian state in the Krishna river basin. The state wants the central government to start again the tribunal proceeding afresh as it was not party to the earlier KWDT1 and KWDT2 adjudications. Karnataka and Maharashtra are opposing the tribunal proceeding afresh and state that the extension of the tribunal period is only for resolving the water disputes between Andhra Pradesh and Telangana states.The extended KWDT2 decided to confine redistribution of water between Telangana and Andhra Pradesh states only.                                                      

By: Vishal