Days after assuring the Supreme Court to constitute the Cauvery Management Board, the Centre took a U-turn on Monday by refusing to form the Board and questioned the jurisdiction of the court to pass such an order.
With Karnataka and Tamil Nadu locked in a legal battle over sharing of Cauvery river water, the latter had demanded constitution of the Cauvery Management Board to apportion the share of water due to each State during the rain-deficit months. Karnataka, however, was not agreeable to any solution. It claimed shortage of drinking water as the reason for not being able to supply any water to TN. Faced with this position, the court had directed the Board upon constitution to visit Karnataka and submit a report on the ground realities.
Expressing reservation on this order, the Centre through Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi went back on its word and said the order was not implementable. In an application filed by Union Water Resources Secretary, the Centre indicated that it was for the legislature to take a final call on whether to accept or reject the findings given by the Tribunal. Since constitution of the Board was a recommendation of the Tribunal upon which an appeal is still pending in Supreme Court, Rohatgi said that the same cannot be formed.
As a way out, the Centre proposed the Supervisory Committee which is currently settling all temporary disputes of water sharing between Karnataka and Tamil Nadu can constitute a High Powered Technical Committee chaired by Central Water Comm-ission Chairman to visit Karnataka and prepare a ground report on the drinking water crisis.
The application suggested that the said team will require minimum one month to conduct a random visit while touring all the areas will require further time.
The Bench of Justices Dipak Misra and UU lalit took the application on record and listed it for hearing on Tuesday.
Meanwhile, Karnataka told the Bench that it had yet not complied with its earlier order to supply Tamil Nadu 6,000 cusecs of water daily. However, it supported the application by Centre citing that a review petition is pending in court on this issue.
The Bench told Karnataka, “Nothing can be argued by a defaulting party,” even as it asked the State to tell by Tuesday how much water had been supplied by it to Tamil Nadu in compliance of its previous directions.