GODAVARI RIVER MANAGEMENT BOARD Minutes of 9th meeting held on 5th June, 2020 at Hyderabad The ninth meeting of Godavari River Management Board (GRMB) was held under the chairmanship of Shri J. Chandrashekhar Iyer, Chairman, GRMB at Hyderabad on 5th June, 2020.The list of participants is enclosed at Annexure - I At the outset, the Chairman welcomed the Members of the Board and other participants from Government of Andhra Pradesh (GoAP), Government of Telangana State (GoTS) and GRMB to the meeting. Recalling that the Board has recently completed six years of its existence, he gratefully acknowledged the cooperation and support extended by both the States in smooth functioning and growth of the Board. He urged both the States to further strengthen the Board in fulfilling its mandate as provided for in the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act, 2014 (APRA). Chairman thereafter requested Member Secretary to take up the Agenda items for discussion. The agenda-wise discussions held and decisions taken as under. Item 9.1- Confirmation of the Minutes of the 8th meeting of the Board held on 09thAugust, 2019. Member Secretary presented before the Board that the minutes of the 8th meeting of the Board was circulated to the members of the Board vide GRMB letter dated 16th September 2019. Government of Telangana State (GoTS) furnished their observations vide their letter dated 22.09.2019 on Item nos. 8.5.1, 8.6.1 & 8.6.2 of the minutes. No comments were received from GoAP. After discussion, Board agreed not to make any changes under item Nos 8.5.1 and 8.6.1 of the minutes. The proposed change suggested by GoTS under item No 8.6.2 was agreed to. The confirmed minutes of the 8th meeting is accordingly enclosed at Annexure -II. 1 Item 9.2- Submission of DPRs of Water Resources Projects in Godavari Basin by the State Governments of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana for appraisal. Member Secretary presented the agenda item on the submission of DPRs of water resources projects in Godavari basin by the two States. This issue has been under discussion in the earlier meetings as well of the Board. The matter has also been discussed in the review meetings taken by Secretary (WR, RD & GR) in February 2018 and January 2020, wherein both the States were advised to submit the Detailed Project Reports (DPR) of all the new projects in Godavari basin to GRMB for appraisal and clearance from Apex Council as per Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act, 2014. Member Secretary mentioned that the Special Chief Secretary, WRD, GoAP vide letter dated 14th May 2020, citing the utilization under existing, ongoing, future and new projects taken up by both States on Godavari River has raised concern that there is hardly any water for projects to be taken up by both States under 75% dependability. The letter has further raised objection that the State of Telangana is executing the following new projects without furnishing the DPRs to GRMB and approval of Apex Council. (i) Kaleshwaram Lift Irrigation Project (ii) GLIS Phase- III (iii) Sita Rama Lift Irrigation Project (iv) Tupakulagudem (v) Telangana Drinking Water Supply Project (vi) Barrages on Lower Penganga river a) Rajupet (Bhimkund) b) Chanakha-Korta c) Pimparad-Parsoda (vii) Ramappa Lake to Pakhal Lake Diversion GoAP has in the letter further opined that construction of above projects without any detailed studies regarding negative impact on the availability of water as per GWDT 2 Award for the lower down projects, is in violation of AP Reorganisation Act, 2014. Further, the State of Telangana has enhanced the utilization under the Kaleshwaram Project from 225 TMC to 450 TMC and under Sita Rama Lift Irrigation Project from 70 TMC to 100 TMC. Member Secretary informed the members that citing relevant provisions under section 85(8)(d) and para-7 of the Eleventh Schedule of APRA, 2014, GRMB vide letter dated 19th May 2020 sought the views of Govt. of Telangana on the letter of Special Chief Secretary, WRD, Government of Andhra Pradesh and to furnish copies of the Detailed Project Reports (DPRs)/details of the projects mentioned above. On the directions of Ministry of Jal Shakti, GRMB vide letter dated 30th May 2020 conveyed to Government of Telangana that the State shall not go ahead with the new projects till the projects are appraised by GRMB/CWC and sanction of Apex Council is obtained. He recalled the recent meeting taken by Secretary, DoWR, RD & GR, Ministry of Jal Shakti on 21st January 2020. Secretary, DoWR, RD & GR after hearing the views of both the State Governments observed that any irrigation project which has not been techno-economically appraised by Central Water Commission (CWC) and accepted by Technical Advisory Committee of DoWR, RD& GR should be considered as new project irrespective of the fact whether it was conceived before or after bifurcation of erstwhile Andhra Pradesh. Secretary (WR, RD & GR) was of the view that all major, medium and multipurpose projects, where there is change in scope such as change in location of intake points, change in alignment of canal distribution network, change in size and geographical location of command area to be served, change in storage, increase in water utilization etc., should be treated as new schemes irrespective of the status of construction of project for the purpose of appraisal. Further, Secretary opined that, in addition to the above mentioned parameters, from the angle of Inter- State issues and hydrology of a project, the project needs to be appraised by the respective Board. Further, appraisal has to be done by CWC also, before placing them to the Apex Council for approval as the Boards do not have the requisite wherewithal in terms of technical wings. 3 Member Secretary informed the Board that GoTS vide their letter dated 4th June 2020 have furnished their response on the above said letter of GoAP. However, copy of DPRs has not yet been received from GoTS. A copy of the reply was handed over by GoTS to Administrative Member from GoAP during the meeting. GRMB would be formally forwarding the letter of GoTS to GoAP. The Administrative Member from GoTS in his opening remarks stated as follows. i) The erstwhile combined State of Andhra Pradesh has estimated the 75% dependable yield in Godavari basin within its territory as 1480 TMC as presented before the Committee for Consultations on the Situation of Andhra Pradesh, December 2010 (Justice Sri Krishna Committee). ii) Hon’ble Chief Minister of erstwhile combined State of Andhra Pradesh has communicated the information to the members of the Legislative Assembly in January, 2014, that the allocation to Telangana region in Godavari basin is967.14 TMC, comprising of 912.25 TMC for irrigation projects and 54.89 TMC for hydroelectric projects. iii) As per Clause-VII of GWDT Award, “Nothing in the Order of this Tribunal shall impair the right or power or authority of any State to regulate within its boundaries the use of water or to enjoy the benefit of waters within that State in a manner not inconsistent with the Order of this Tribunal.” The waters can be used by a basin State anywhere within its boundary and hence GoTS is planning projects within its allocation of 967.14 TMC. iv) The State of Telangana is not realizing the allocated water in some of the upstream projects like Sriramsagar (SRSP)-185 TMC, Nizamsagar- 58 TMC on account of various executive actions by the upper riparian States. The success rate of these projects has been abysmally lower 4 than 75%. The average utilization based on past 20 years data from 2000-01 to 2019-20 in SRSP and Nizamsagar projects is of the order of 72 TMC and 11 TMC respectively. No water is available in Kakatiya Canal of SRSP. To mitigate the suffering of the farmers within their command, it has become necessary for the State of Telangana to invoke the freedom of en-bloc nature of allocation provided for in Clause-VII of Final Order of GWDT Award and provide water to their command from Kaleshwaram Project at a very high cost by lifting water, which in normal course would have been irrigated by gravity. v) GoTS intends to use infrastructure created under Kaleshwaram Project for meeting the requirements of the sanctioned ayacut which has also been explicitly stated by the then Hon’ble Chief Minister of the erstwhile combined State of Andhra Pradesh in January, 2014. vi) To meet the future irrigation, drinking and industrial water needs within the State, it is necessary for the State of Telangana to plan projects based on surplus waters in Godavari. It would be appropriate if GRMB and both the States constructively work towards assessing and apportionment of surplus waters. vii) The seven mentioned projects of Telangana in the letter of GoAP with a utilization of 450 TMC shown as new projects is not correct. All these projects were conceived and planned by the erstwhile combined State of Andhra Pradesh and cannot be termed as projects taken up in violation of APRA, 2014. viii) The definition of new projects is not explicitly stated in the APRA, 2014. The minutes of the review meeting taken by Secretary (WR, RD & GR) on 21st January 2020 at New Delhi has stated what are new projects. The definition that projects with change in allocation, change in scope, absence of TAC clearance etc. are considered as new projects will be taken to Government and DPRs of new projects will be submitted to GRMB after obtaining clearance of the Government of Telangana. 5 ix) GRMB may consider adopting the shorter process of accounting the project-wise water utilisation accounting in both the States rather than appraisal of the entire DPR, which is a rather lengthy process.