Andhra Pradesh has decided to move Supreme Court against the fresh terms of reference issued to the Krishna Water Disputes Tribunal II (KWDT-II) by the Union Cabinet.
The move came after AP Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy urged the Centre to immediately withdraw the Cabinet decision of issuing fresh terms of reference to KWDT-II since it would cause irreparable damage to the interests of the people of the state.
The state will move a special leave petition in the apex court following the gazette notification of the fresh terms of reference (TOR). Announcing the state’s decision to approach the court state irrigation minister Ambati Rambabu said issuing new TOR was illegal and chief minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy has written to the Prime Minister opposing the Centre’s move.
He said the state was ready to fight the matter legally. The Central government at the time of division of the state temporarily allocated 512 tmc to AP and 299 tmc to Telangana. However, the state was apprehensive that the new TOR will be detrimental to the interest of Andhra Pradesh. “We will ensure every drop of water due to AP was met,” said the minister.
Prior to Telangana elections, the Centre after nine years of delay decided to give fresh terms of reference to the KWDT-II in order to reevaluate the allocation of Krishna river waters between AP and Telangana. Dissatisfied by the temporary allocation of 299 tmc Telangana has been demanding 574 tmc out of 811 tmc and had even filed a SLP in Supreme Court but had withdrawn it after Jal Shakti minister convinced the state, assuring that it would refer the matter of water sharing between the two states to the tribunal.
While Telangana wanted the matter to be sorted out between the two states AP wanted to include other stakeholder states in the basin like Maharashtra and Karnataka. While the decision of the Centre has been termed as a victory for Telangana Andhra Pradesh chief minister has faced criticism at home over the decision of the NDA government.