Andhra calls all-party meet on Krishna water tribunal award

Hyderabad, Disappointed over the final judgment of Brijesh Kumar tribunal on the Krishna water dispute, the Andhra Pradesh government has decided to call an all-party meeting to chalk out its future course of action.

The government, which plans to challenge the judgment in the Supreme Court, will take a final decision after the all-party meet, said state Irrigation Minister Sudershan Reddy.

The state cabinet at its Dec 3 meeting will discuss the issue and finalise the date for all-party meet.
The minister told reporters that the tribunal's judgment had disappointed the state as being a lower riparian state, it should have been allocated more surplus water.

The tribunal, in its final order pronounced Friday, allocated 1,005 tmcft to Andhra Pradesh, 907 tmcft feet to Karnataka and 666 tmcft to Maharashtra.

The tribunal did not give relief to Andhra Pradesh on any of the 14 amendments it sought on the interim order issued in December 2010.

The judgment means Karnataka and Maharashtra can now get what was termed surplus under the Bachawat award.

Andhra Pradesh government feels this could badly affect the state's interests and put all flood water based projects undertaken by it at risk. Dealing a blow to Andhra, the tribunal also allowed Karnataka to increase the height of Almatti dam from 519.6 meters to 524.26 meters.

Andhra Pradesh had challenged the interim order in the Supreme Court but the court asked the state to wait for final verdict. The state is now likely to revive its special leave petition (SLP) in the apex court.