Another Alamatti in the making?

By M. Malleswara Rao

HYDERABAD, APRIL 2. Karnataka has clarified that the anicut under construction on Chitravathi river at Paragodu in Kolar district bordering Andhra Pradesh is only a drinking water project meant for Bagepalli and its neighbourhood having no irrigation component and that A.P. need not entertain any fears.

Corraborating this, the Central Water Commission (CWC), which cleared the project, has given its own explanation, recalling the minutes of the inter-State meeting at Hyderabad convened by it on February 21, 2000, at which the CWC Chief Engineer stated that the project could not be objected to, as ``drinking water needs are to be met on a priority basis'' as provided under the National Water Policy. The CWC, however, asked Karnataka to provide the project report to Andhra Pradesh to allay the possible fears about the inflow of the river coming to Anantapur and Cuddapah districts.

Andhra Pradesh officials are ``hoping against hope'' to receive the report, ``an obligation long overdue'', as they say, quoting provisions of the agreement on the Chitravathi waters signed by the composite Madras State of which Andhra was a part, with the erstwhile Mysore Government, and the Bachawat Award which, though covering Krishna basin, has a linkage with the present issue as the Chitravathi canal in A.P. is partially fed by the Hospet dam on Thungabhadra, a tributary of the Krishna. They say that Karnataka commenced full-scale work on Paragodu with an outlay of Rs. 40 crores without informing Andhra Pradesh and after completing the survey quickly spending Rs. 2.4 crores.

An Alamatti-type trouble is brewing here over Paragodu with the MLAs belonging to Anantapur and Cuddapah districts raising the issue of ``Karnataka indulging in yet another illegal construction'' in the Assembly, complaining that the project, if allowed, would reduce flows accruing to Andhra Pradesh to a nought. They are apprehensive that such an occurrence would affect the entire existing ayact of 2 lakh acres under Chitravathi in the two districts apart from the drinking water scheme in Anantapur executed by Sri Satya Saibaba of Puttaparthi.

The tanks at Bukkapatnam, Kothacheruvu, Dharmavaram and Puttaparthi will be the first ones to dry up, they assert, adding the situation has already turned worse in the region with groundwater not being available even at depths such as 1,000 ft. due to the projects now existing on Pennar and Jayamangali rivers on the other side.

Chitravathi is a small river originating at Nandi Hills near Bangalore and joining the Pennar downstream of Mylavaram dam in Cuddapah district after passing through Karnataka which accounts for most of the catchment, for about 150 km and in Andhra Pradesh for another 100 km. With Anantapur being dry area - normal rainfall under South West and North East monsoons not going beyond 297 mm and 140 mm respectively - the river on the Andhra side is almost dry round the year. It is assessed that floods relevant to Andhra occur once in four to six years.

The cultivation in Andhra Pradesh is being carried on with the storages at Goddumarri anicut in Anantapur district, the only existing structure on the river on this side, and through the Pulivendula canal which the Government implemented in view of the undependability of Goddumarri, taking 4 tmc out of the 32.5-tmc allocation of the High Level Canal from the State's share from the Hospet dam, roughly going up to 75 tmc.

The 4 tmc drawal from the High Level Canal reaches the targeted ayacut in Cuddapah district through a canal connecting Penn- Ahobilam Balancing Reservoir where hydel generation is made, and Mid-Pennar Dam.

To shore the rare flood waters and thus give assured irrigation for at least three years in a row, the A.P. Government has also taken up another project across the river five km downstream of Goddumarri, called Chitravathi Balancing Reservoir. Work on this five tmc capacity reservoir was on at a feverish pitch till recently when the Government stopped it abruptly after coming across some ``irregularities'' committed by officials and contractors.

The APCC(I) president, Dr. Y. S. Rajasekhara Reddy, Mr. N. Raghuveera Reddy, and Dr. M. V. Mysoora Reddy, who all belong to the areas ``likely to be affected'', say Paragodu has been designed to store about 5 tmc and, at that capacity, any reservoir will have an irrigation component. They allege that if Paragodu is implemented, even the little flow of water in the river will disappear.

As of now, the Government has not issued any statement on the contentious issue clearing the doubts expressed by the MLAs or clarifying the likely loss as it did in the case of Alamatti. At political level, Telugu Desam remained mum. However, the State BJP president, Mr. Ch. Ramachandra Reddy, who also hails from the Rayalaseema region, demanded an all-party meeting, saying that Paragodu would submerge ``some areas'' also in Anantapur and Cuddapah districts and that the Karnataka action in not providing Andhra Pradesh with the project report, is violative of the Madras-Mysore agreement.

Paragodu is the third river-water dispute occurring between the two neighbouring States, the first two being Alamatti and Upper Thunga. The Upper Thunga project which is being constructed near Shimoga with increased capacity as alleged by A.P. politicians and officials, is not much talked about among the circles here as the other two. This was in spite of the visit made by Mrs. N. Lakshmi Parvathi, president of NTR Telugu Desam, to the project site sometime ago to highlight the issue.

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