29.1.13

Think out of the box on Cauvery : SC


The Supreme Court directed Karnataka to furnish all information on the amount of Cauvery water it shared with Tamil Nadu since 1992 and said out-of-the-box thinking would be required from both states to sort out the dispute. A bench of Justices R M Lodha and J Chelameswar asked Karnataka to submit its report on Tuesday when it will hear the plea on passing interim direction on sharing of water by the two states.
The bench also observed that requirement of drinking water for Karnataka should be given priority over water needed by Tamil Nadu for irrigation purposes. “Some equitable sharing has to be done. Some out-of-the-box thinking is required. There has to be some interim solution,” the bench said, while pulling up Karnataka for not adhering to the formula of water sharing.
Earlier on December 5, the Supreme Court had directed Karnataka to release 10,000 cusecs of Cauvery water daily to its neighbouring state and asked the Cauvery Monitoring Committee (CMC) to hold a meeting to decide the amount of water required by each state. The committee had then directed Karnataka to provide Tamil Nadu with 12 tmcft of Cauvery water during December and did not pass any order for the month of January as the Centre had assured the Supreme Court that it would notify the Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal award by December 31. During the earlier hearing on November 26, the court had asked the chief ministers of the two states to meet and arrive at an amicable solution to the “sensitive” dispute.
The talks between the chief ministers, however, failed to break the deadlock on the water-sharing row and the matter again reached the Supreme Court.
Once a gazette notification is issued, the Cauvery River Authority (CRA) chaired by the Prime Minister and the CMC will cease to exist. The tribunal, comprising chairman Justice N P Singh and members N S Rao and Sudhir Narain, in an unanimous award in February 2007 had determined the total availability of water in the Cauvery basin.
The proceedings of the tribunal, set up in June 1990, went on for more than 16 years. In what was then described as a balancing act, the tribunal gave Tamil Nadu 419 tmcft of water (as against the demand of 562 tmcft); Karnataka 270 tmcft (as against its demand of 465 tmcft); Kerala 30 tmcft and Puducherry 7 tmcft. For environmental protection, it had reserved 10 tmcft.
The tribunal’s award will come into effect within 90 days of its notification by the Centre. As per law, the award comes into being after being notified by the Centre through its publication in a gazette.

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