Sangli-Kolhapur floods caused by Maharashtra’s own mismanagement, says Minister MB Patil

BENGALURU:Karnataka Minister MB Patil on Sunday said that the floods in Maharashtra’s Sangli, Satara and Kolhapur districts—located in the Krishna basin—were a result of the simultaneous release of water from the Koyna, Rajapur and other dams, along with rampant encroachments.

He cited a report by an expert committee constituted by the Maharashtra government, which confirmed this finding and clarified that the floods had nothing to do with the height of Karnataka’s Alamatti and Hipparagi dams.

Patil reminded that the Krishna Water Disputes Tribunal had authorised Karnataka to raise the Alamatti dam’s height from 519.60 metres to 524.56 metres.

“The Maharashtra government, which never objected to this decision so far, has now written to the central government with misplaced intentions,” he alleged.

Recalling the 2019 floods in Sangli and surrounding areas, Patil said the then Maharashtra government had set up a ten-member expert committee under retired Water Resources Department Principal Secretary Nandakumar Vadnere, to recommend flood mitigation strategies.

The committee submitted its report in May 2022, which clearly stated that the backwaters of the Alamatti and Hipparagi dams were not responsible for the flooding in Sangli.

The report further clarified that these backwaters fall entirely within Karnataka’s boundaries and do not submerge any land in Maharashtra, Patil explained.

He also noted that Alamatti is located approximately 260 km from Sangli, while the backwaters of Hipparagi are 22 km away from the Rajapur barrage.

According to the Vadnere committee report, the simultaneous release of massive volumes of water–running into lakhs of cusecs–from the Koyna dam, Rajapur barrage and other sources had led to the flooding.

“The report also stated that the Maharashtra government lacked a track record of exercising precaution while releasing water from these dams. This concern was formally communicated to the then Chief Minister by the committee in a letter dated 4 August 2019,” Patil said.

On a related note, he mentioned that Amol Pawar, a resident of Maharashtra, had filed a writ petition in the Supreme Court seeking directions to both Maharashtra and Karnataka to frame joint flood management guidelines. Karnataka responded to the petition; however, the petitioner eventually withdrew it.

“There is no fresh controversy over the height of the Alamatti dam. The issue has already been resolved by the Krishna Water Disputes Tribunal,” Patil asserted. “If Maharashtra truly intends to resolve flood-related issues, it should do so through the Inter-State Flood Coordination Committee. Instead, the state has chosen to politicise the matter,” he said.

Patil further accused the Maharashtra government of indulging in negative politics with the sole aim of stalling Karnataka’s developmental works.

“This is the real motive behind the letter written by Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis to Union Water Resources Minister C.R. Patil,” he claimed. (ANI)