Legal experts to to visit Alamatti, Narayanpur dams

A team of legal experts and officers will visit Lal Bahadur Shastri Dam, Alamatti, and Basava Sagar Dam, Narayanpur, on December 23 and 24 respectively to collect crucial details to present the state's case effectively in the Supreme Court in the petition pertaining to Upper Krishna Project.

The team comprises Supreme Court's senior advocates Mohan Katarki, V N Raghupati, Shyam Divan and Karnataka's Advocate General Prabhuling Navadagi, High Court advocates P N Rajeshwar, Ashwin Chikkmath, Water Resources Department's chief engineer H N Srinivas, principal technical advisor Sriramaiah, coordinator-advisor K Bangaraswamy and T N Achyut Kumar.

The team will collect details regarding legal hurdles to increase the height of Lal Bahaddur Shastri dam from 519.60 metres to 524.256 metres, its present status and condition of crest gates.

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Works are in full swing after the verdict of Krishna Water Disputes Tribunal-II. Land acquisition process is underway, while a network of canals is being expanded.

About 500 tmcft water flows to Andhra Pradesh annually. The neighbouring state utilises about 200 tmcft water, while letting about 300 tmcft remaining to the sea.

Farmers in the region want the government to get an interim order from the Supreme Court to install the crest gates that have been cut so that water released annually to the sea is utilised for the UKP-3 till the final verdict.

"Two important challenges the state faces include handling legal battles regarding increasing the height of the dam and ensuring a gazette notification from the centre for the implementation of the verdict of Krishna Water Disputes Tribunal-II.

"The team members should consider these two," urged Krishna Valley Farmers' Welfare Protection committee president Basavaraj Kumbar.