Minister permits utilisation of 44.54 TMC water till Lower Penganga Project

Lokmat News Network

Aurangabad, Nov 12:

The state's Water Resources minister Jayant Patil has granted permission to utilise an additional quantity of water (of 44.54 TMC) available till the Lower Penganga Project (LPP). It is claimed that the decision would help a few districts of the Marathwada and Vidarbha regions as they will be getting an additional quantity of water, but the water experts opined to verify the claim.

The dispute regarding the water of the Godavari River is before an arbitrator. As per the arbitration, there is a relaxation in using water available till LPP. It may be noted that several meetings were held with Andhra Pradesh in the past. The meeting was held considering the availability of 117.87 TMC water in the Penganga river. Minister Jayant Patil has toured various parts of Marathwada recently. Besides, in a recent study undertaken by the chief engineer (Hydrology), a quantity of 167.46 TMC water is available till LPP rather than 117.87 TMC. It means an additional quantity of 44.54 TMC water is available. Hence the minister approved the usage of this additional quantity of water.

The water could be utilised to overcome the shortage of water in Penganga sub-basin's Upper Penganga Project (UPP) and the remaining water of UPP could be utilised in the LPP. Accordingly, this will benefit Hingoli, Yavatmal and Nanded districts. The utility of water would be planned in the lower areas of Pus, Arunavati and UPP. Hence, as per the approval, a quantity of 44.54 TMC water will be available between UPP and LPP and could be utilised as per further planning.

The claim is an eyewash

In October, the permission to use water from LPP was given after minister Patil granted permission to utilise an additional quantity of 19.29 TMC of water from the Central Godavari sub-basin for Marathwada. It is now being claimed that many works which were pending for want of water will now be completed on priority due to the above two decisions. On other hand, the water experts opined that both the decisions are nothing an eyewash for the people of Marathwada as Vidarbha and Andhra Pradesh will be linked through the canal with the project. Then how will the water be brought to Marathwada is not understood. It is not beneficial for our region and the claim is also less feasible. Besides, the old project will not be cancelled as Andhra Pradesh has paid the money. Hence the whole issue or claim has to be verified, stressed a former member of Marathwada Development Board (MDB) Shankar Nagare.