Tamil Nadu has come out against the move by the Union Government to amend the Inter-State River Water Disputes (Amendment) Bill 2017. In a letter to Nitin Gadkari, Union Minister for Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation, Chief Minister Edappadi Palaniswamy said he was against the constitution of a Permanent River Water Disputes Tribunal to adjudicate the Inter-State river water disputes amongst the States.
“Each and every water dispute amongst the States is unique in character and the water disputes that would arise are complex in their mode unlike the usual civil and criminal cases normally dealt with by the courts,” Palaniswamy wrote in his letter to Gadkari, excerpts of which were released to the media on Wednesday.
He stated that the Cauvery River Water Dispute Tribunal which was constituted as per the Supreme Court verdict in 1990 had rendered its final decision in 2007 which has also been notified by the Government of India in its special gazette. “The Supreme Court has held that the appeals filed by the governments of Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu against the final decision of the tribunal in 2007 are maintainable.
The government of Tamil Nadu firmly believes that the provisions in the Inter State River Water Disputes Act 1956 as amended up to 2002 would suffice to adjudicate the inter-state river water disputes amongst the States, said the chief minister.
“The Government of Tamil Nadu conveys its decision that the functioning of the existing CWDTshould not be hampered in the pretext of transfer of the pending applications to the proposed constitution of the Inter-State River Water Disputes Tribunal,” said Palaniswamy in his letter.
The Centre’s decision to constitute a single, permanent Tribunal to adjudicate all inter-state river water disputes is expected to resolve grievances of States in a speedy manner. Along with the Permanent River Water Dispute Tribunal, the Centre also proposes to set up Dispute Resolution Committee , consisting of experts and policy makers to handle the disputes prior to the Tribunal.
The move is to speed up the process of resolving the disputes as the conventional Tribunal system was taking decades to find a final settlement. Though the Cauvery River Water Dispute Tribunal delivered its final award in 2007, the riparian States have questioned the validity of the final order in the Supreme Court and hence the union government is not in a position to constitute the Cauvery Management Board as ordered by the CWDT.
The Inter-State River Water Disputes (Amendment ) Bill 2017, introduced in lok Sabha in March this year hopes to bring down the total period of adjudication of a water dispute to four and half years.
