R S N MURTHY Vs. UNION OF INDIA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The petitioner, who served in Irrigation Department in State of Andhra Pradesh for more than 35 years and retired as Chief Engineer, has filed this petition as public interest litigation and sought directions against the respondents to urgently execute the pending projects such as Ichampally and Polavaram Projects for optimum utilization of allocated Godavari water for irrigation of lands and power generation in the State in a time bound program. Grievance of the petitioner is that there is inaction on the part of the State Government in implementing and completing the projects.

(2.) Respondents 1 and 2 filed their counter-affidavits.

(3.) 1st Respondent has stated that Central Government have allocated 1450 TMC of water from the Godavari river for utilization by the State of Andhra Pradesh. The Godavari Water Disputes Tribunal (GWDT) adjudicated the disputes between co-basin States of Karnataka, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Orissa and Andhra Pradesh and had given its final Award in July, 1980. The Godavari Water Disputes Tribunal Award does not indicate specific quantification of water allotted to each cobasin States. A number of Inter-State Agreements have already been entered into between the co-basin States and have been made part of the final order of the Tribunal. The affidavit further states that