Chief Justice of India N. V. Ramana on Monday suggested the governments of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana to seek instructions on clearing the disputes through mediation in a plea filed by the state of Andhra Pradesh, alleging that Telangana is depriving Andhra’s citizens of their legitimate share of water for drinking and irrigation purposes.
A Divisional Bench of the Supreme Court, comprising the CJI and Justice Surya Kant, while hearing the plea said, “Do not even think of those things in your dreams,” while referring to the incident that happened in Manipur and Assam border over inter-state dispute.
“The state of Telangana is refusing to follow decisions taken in the Apex Council constituted under the Andhra Pradesh Reorganization Act, 2014, directions of Krishna River Management Board (KRMB) constituted under the 2014 Act and directions of the Government of India,” the Andhra Pradesh government alleged in the petition.
The Chief Justice, before allowing the arguments to start, suggested Senior Advocate Dushyant Dave appearing for Andhra Pradesh, “I don’t want to hear this matter legally. If the matter can be settled in mediation, please do that. Otherwise, I will transfer this to another Bench.”
To this, Mr Dave said, “Milord’s suggestions are very just, but I’ll seek instructions as it is a political matter. Looking at what happened in the North East, we don’t want that to happen here.”
Justice Ramana said, “Do not even think of those things in your dreams. We’ll list (the matter) day after tomorrow.”
The plea submitted, “It is the case of State of Andhra Pradesh that in Srisailam Dam project, the reservoir’s quantity has seriously depleted on account of use of water for generation of power in Telangana state and established by ‘daily readings’ submitted by the Authorities of that Dam.”