By Balu Pulipaka

Copyright deccanchronicle

Hyderabad: Just as Telangana is gearing up for presenting its case before the Krishna Waters Disputes Tribunal-II (KWDT-II) in the last week of this month in New Delhi, arguing that it should get 904 tmc ft of water from the river of the total 1005 tmc ft that the tribunal had finalised for undivided Andhra Pradesh, the decision of the Karnataka government to acquire more land to allow increased storage at the Almatti dam on the river could mean reopening of a dormant battlefront with the upstream state.The Karnataka Cabinet on Tuesday decided to implement the Upper Krishna Project (UKP) Phase-3, which in other words, means a decision to increase storage at the Almatti dam from the present 519.6 metres to 524.256 metres. If Karnataka goes ahead with its plan, then storage of around 100 tmf ft of additional water at Almatti will become possible. The current allowed storage at the dam is 123.08 tmc ft.Whether or not Karnataka can actually increase storage is sub-judice, as a case filed by Telangana in 2014 is pending in the Supreme Court. However, Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister D.K. Shivakumar was quoted after the Cabinet meeting as saying that his state hoped that Telangana and Andhra Pradesh would have no objections to increasing the storage at the dam.Karnataka, he said, planned only to use excess water flowing into the sea. However, for Karnataka to fill the dam up to 524.256 metres, a gazette notification is required from the Centre, something that had been pending since the final KWDT-II award in 2013, which apportioned 666 tmc ft of water to Maharashtra, 907 tmc ft for Karnataka, and 1,005 tmc ft for the then undivided AP.It is this allocation to undivided Andhra Pradesh, which is to be apportioned between the Telugu states, for which Telangana is all set to make its case before the KWDT-II in New Delhi, starting September 23.Meanwhile, senior BRS leader and former MP Boinpalli Vinod Kumar slammed the Congress government for its silence on Karnataka’s decision. “Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy, just a couple of days ago, claimed that he will not let a single drop of water that should come to Telangana be lost. Why is he still silent after Karnataka’s decision to spend some Rs 70,000 crore for land acquisition and other works related to Almatti? Has Revanth Reddy silently agreed to let Karnataka do what it pleases because it is the Congress party in power there, too? The Telangana government must respond on a war footing on this,” Vinod Kumar said at a press conference.Sources in the Telangana irrigation department expressed alarm over the Karnataka government’s decision on increasing storage at Almatti saying if this happens, there will always be a question mark on whether the 100 tmc ft that now flows into Telangana and then into AP, will come or not, especially in a poor rain year.“Telangana is making plans to use its entire share by completing existing and ongoing projects, and through new projects. The state government must immediately wake up to the implications of the Karnataka government’s decision,” a senior irrigation official said, adding that Telangana needs to urgently file an interim application in the Supreme Court to stop Karnataka from going ahead with its plans.