New Delhi: A group of farmers have approached the Supreme Court challenging the construction of a power project on the Tungabhadra reservoir in Karnataka, which reportedly would choke drinking and irrigation water supply to over 50,000 villages in Andhra Pradesh's Mahaboobnagar district.

A bench of Justices G P Mathur and D K Jain which was initially disinclined to entertain the petition, later heard the matter for over four-and-half hours, before posting it for further hearing to next week. The petition filed by Atma Linga Reddy and other farmers from Andhra Pradesh who sought a stay of the mini-hydel power project being constructed across the reservoir by a private contractor hired by the Karnataka Government.

Senior counsel A K Ganguli appearing for the farmers submitted that the power project would choke water supply being channelled through Andhra Pradesh Government's "Rajolibanda Diversion Scheme" on the Tunghabhadra to Mahaboobnagar for irrigating over 87,000 acres of cultivable lands and providing drinking water to the inhabitants. Counsel for the Karnataka Government intervened during the arguments to claim that individuals and organisations cannot challenge such projects on inter-State water disputes. The counsel claimed that any such objections could be raised only by the respective state governments.