AP says no drought here. Convenient.
At the Brijesh Kumar Tribunal, the Andhra Pradesh government argued Telangana faces “no drought risk” and pushed to count outside-basin use and slice evaporation losses its way. Telangana starts its reply next.
The tribunal has asked both states to support their water-sharing claims with data.
Andhra Pradesh told the Krishna Water Disputes Tribunal-II on Thursday that Telangana “does not face” the same drought risk — and then used that line to argue for sharing Krishna water by population, outside-basin use and “needs” rather than basin location, according to a report from the hearing. It also pressed to treat Telangana’s per-capita use as above the national average — without putting a figure to it. These are AP’s submissions, not the Tribunal’s findings. (Source: hearing report)
The Tribunal is hearing a “further reference” on inter-state sharing under Section 3 of the Inter-State River Water Disputes Act, which the BJP-led Union government approved in October 2023 after Telangana’s complaint. The Bench has already ruled it will decide this sharing question first, before the project-wise allocation under Section 89 of the AP Reorganisation Act, because inter-state shares affect project apportionment. (Source: Union release; Tribunal reporting)
AP’s menu of asks reportedly included: splitting 33 TMC of Srisailam evaporation losses as 11 TMC each across three regions with 22 TMC to AP, assigning 9 TMC of Pulichintala evaporation to AP, excluding an extra 2.5 lakh acres claimed under Nagarjuna Sagar as beyond the “localised ayacut”, and leaning on an FAO 1984 manual where crop data is missing. The Tribunal, per the same report, asked both states to file material on basin parameters and population within 40 pages. Telangana’s reply is due from Friday. (Source: hearing report)
For context, earlier official material records the historical 33 TMC evaporation at Srisailam — at one point admitted to undivided AP as carryover-storage loss; elsewhere shown as 11 TMC across three regions — which is how we got this arithmetic fight. What we do not have is a Tribunal order accepting AP’s new split, or any central technical body endorsing AP’s drought-risk pitch. (Sources: Jal Shakti document; KRMB annual report)
The BJP-led Centre put KWDT-II back on the clock only after Telangana forced the issue; Andhra Pradesh has now opened with “Telangana isn’t drought-prone, we are.” Telangana gets its say next — and the Congress/TDP government in Amaravati can explain its numbers then, preferably with more than a slogan about rainclouds.