The Cauvery water dispute showed no sign of thaw on Tuesday as Tamil Nadu went on the offensive against Karnataka’s recalcitrance to obey the Supreme Court order and supply much-needed water for irrigation. Tamil Nadu was also upset over the Supreme Court’s refusal to set up the Cauvery Management Board after the Centre said it was not possible to do so.
Instead, the SC formed a technical committee and asked it to visit the Cauvery basin areas and submit a report by October 17. It directed Karnataka to release 2,000 cusecs Cauvery water per day to Tamil Nadu from October 7 to 18 till it finally decide on appeals relating to the age-old water dispute.
Tamil Nadu’s ruling AIADMK felt cheated by the Centre’s U-turn on setting up the Cauvery Management Board and its counsel said there might be a “political” plot behind the Centre’s decision. The BJP is backing the Congress-led Karnataka Government in the water row in Karanataka, which will go to poll in 2018.
Appearing for TN, senior advocate Shekhar Naphade submitted, “The Karnataka Government wanted to see that the Board is not put in place after we filed an application to set it up. The Union of India is now playing at their hands as appointing a Board was not a big thing. Why then did the Centre backtrackIJ …there is much more than meets the eye.”
Meanwhile, AIADMK MPs took out a march in protest against Centre’s stand in Supreme Court and submitted a memorandum to Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) demanding withdrawal of the fresh application by the Centre.
The contingent of 49 MPs was led by Deputy Speaker Thambidurai. Speaking to mediapersons after he was stopped by security personnel outside PMO, Thambidurai said, “The Central government is engaged in a political game. They want to politicise the issue.”
later, P Rama Mohana Rao, Chief Secretary of Tamil Nadu, wrote a letter to Union Water Resources Secretary Shashi Shekhar with a plea to withdraw the Centre’s application refusing to constitute the Cauvery Management Board. It said, “We are unable to understand what caused this sudden reversal in Government of India’s stand,” Rao said in his letter, referring to the positive assurance earlier given to the Court by the Attorney General.
The Bench of Justices Dipak Misra and UU lalit decided to “defer” its order directing constitution of the Board and replaced it with a direction forming a Technical Committee to conduct a spot visit of the areas in Cauvery Basin affected due to non-supply of water. The Chairman of Central Water Commission will head the Committee and it will comprise the Chief Secretaries of Karnataka and Tamil Nadu, the Chief Engineers of both States and of Kerala and Puducherry as well. The Committee will submit its report to Court by October 17. Till then, the Bench told Karnataka to make good for the deficit in supply of water to Tamil Nadu.
Senior advocate Fali S Nariman, who appeared for Karnataka, informed the Court that the State had agreed to supply 6000 cusecs of water per day between October 1 and October 6. The Bench wished to know how much the State can supply till October 18. Nariman objected to such interim orders being passed by Court pending hearing on its appeal against the decision by the Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal in 2007.
Nariman asked the court on what basis it apportioned Karnataka to supply 15,000 cusecs at one time, later reducing it to 12,000 cusecs and then bringing it further down to 6,000 cusecs. The Bench replied, “We have gone by arithmetic,” to which Nariman assertively replied, “You cannot go by arithmetic in such matters. You need to go by reality when millions of people are involved. We cannot do anymore.”
After taking instruction at the highest level, Karnataka Advocate General MR Naik informed the Court that State has agreed to daily release 1500 cusecs for the period October 7 to October 18. The Bench directed the State to supply 2000 cusecs per day for the period.
Karnataka, which had refused to comply with the monthly water allocation prescribed by the Tribunal, has complained that its cities are facing shortage of drinking water. Tamil Nadu, which required water for its crops, has accused Karnataka of being in deficit of supplying 4.1 TMC water. The Karnataka Government claimed of supplying 17.5 TMC water to TN between September 5 and 30 and further committed to supply 3.1 TMC till October 6. Tamil Nadu still claimed a deficit of 12 TMC for the month of October as per the Award.