Siddaramaiah writes to Maharashtra Chief Minister defending decision to increase Almatti dam height

Chief Minister Siddaramaiah has written to Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis defending Karnataka’s decision to increase the height of the Lal Bahadur Shastri reservoir on the Krishna at Almatti. He has argued that Karnataka has the right to increase the dam height even without waiting for the Union government to publish the Krishna Water Disputes Tribunal award.

Chief Minister Siddaramaiah has written to Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis defending Karnataka’s decision to increase the height of the Lal Bahadur Shastri reservoir on the Krishna at Almatti. He has argued that Karnataka has the right to increase the dam height even without waiting for the Union government to publish the Krishna Water Disputes Tribunal award.

This is in response to Mr. Fadnavis’ letter on May 9 that objected to Karnataka planning to increase the dam height. The Maharashtra government had urged Karnataka to “reconsider the plan to increase the height of Almatti dam from the present level of 519.6 metres to full reservoir level (FRL) of 524.256 metres to protect the safety of people from floods in Kolhapur and Sangli districts in Maharashtra.”

In the letter, Mr. Siddaramaiah said that Maharashtra’s fears of flooding owing to the Krishna backwaters are unfounded. KWDT-I headed by Justice R.S. Bachawat, and subsequently the KWDT-II headed by Justice Brijesh Kumar, had looked into the issue and ruled that Karnataka could not be denied the right to increase the dam height, in 2013.

“Karnataka planned the construction of the Almatti dam up to FRL 524.256 m back in 1969. The KWDT-I headed by Justice R.S. Bachawat, and subsequently the KWDT-II headed by Justice Brijesh Kumar have not imposed any restrictions on the height of the Almatti dam,” the letter said, pointing out that objections of both Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra had been overruled after considering the views of experts.

While Andhra Pradesh had demanded that the dam height be restricted to 515 m, Maharashtra demanded it be kept at 512 m.

The Chief Minister noted in the letter that even though there is no backwater effect, a three-tier Inter-State flood co-ordination committee had been established by both the States to prevent any inadvertent mismanagement in the regulation, the integration, and the coordination of flood monitoring.

“I may also recall that the Vadhere committee of technical experts, appointed by the Maharashtra government, had gone into the alleged flooding in 2019 and blamed it on encroachment, since these encroachments are narrowing the channels in Sangli and Kolhapur districts,’‘ he said.