Cauvery final award: Karnataka justified in feeling aggrieved

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Bangalore, February 21: Despite strong opposition from Karnataka, the Centre notified the final award of the Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal on February 20, on the directions of the Supreme Court. Karnataka has always maintained that the award is a grave injustice to the interests of the State and it has reasons to feel aggrieved in no small measure.

As against Karnataka’s claim of 465 TMC, only 270 TMC has been allocated in the order.

While the entire ‘achkat’ of Tamil Nadu, both within the agreement of 1924 and outside is   protected by the final Tribunal Order, for Karnataka it is not done so.

In spite of the findings of the various Commissions as to the availability of abundant quantity of ground water, in Cauvery Delta and in spite of Tamil Nadu’s own admission of availability 47 TMC of ground water, the Tribunal has given a finding that a minimum quantity of 20 TMC is available for use in conjunction with surface water. But strangely enough in the final allocation the Tribunal has not accounted for even this quantity of 20 TMC in the water availability of Tamil Nadu.

While assessing the drinking water requirement for Bangalore, the Tribunal’s order has taken into consideration only partial needs of the city leaving out almost two third (2/3 rd) of the city need. Hence Bangalore city will face a perpetual water shortage. Similar is the case while making the assessment of the needs of other cities in Karnataka like Mysore, Mandya, Hassan and Tumkur.

It’s worth noting that Karnataka has shared five TMC of water from Krishna Basin for Chennai city.

The unallocated water of 48 TMC has been erroneously re-allocated on population basis which has drastically reduced the availability of crop water and adversely affected the ongoing projects in Karnataka.

In the final order of the Tribunal, the prescription of monthly accounting of the quota on proportionate sharing formula under distress situation without assessing the ground realities has been of great concern for Karnataka. Moreover, the Cauvery River Authority is yet to finalise the distress sharing formula. Pending this, issuing final notification is going to have a great bearing on the Cauvery Water Dispute.

The dispute assumes larger dimension only during the distress years. Therefore the focus has to be on addressing the situation during the distress years. Unless this is addressed, the dispute would defy a permanent solution which is expected in the final order of the Tribunal.

It’s no secret that the Tribunal has over-estimated the crop water requirement of Tamil Nadu based on its self serving affidavits overlooking the objections of Karnataka. The latest assessment made by the team of Central Water Commission (CWC) under the direction of Supreme Court has exposed the false claims of Tamil Nadu. Therefore, the very basis of allocation of water to Tamil Nadu has to be revisited, according to Karnataka officials.

In its Civil Appeals, Karnataka has challenged the constitution of a Management Board as proposed by the Tribunal. The proposed Board will protect the interests of the lower riparian state – Tamil Nadu – virtually taking control over the Karnataka reservoirs which have been built by the state’s own resources. This would be a draconian measure which is against the spirit of the Federal System. Therefore, unless the Civil Appeals are finally decided by’ the Supreme Court, it is not appropriate to constitute a Management Board until such time CRA should confirm, Karnataka officials underlined.

“Therefore the constitution of a Board/Authority under Section 6 A of the Inter State Water Dispute Act should be done only after the final decision by the Supreme Court in the pending Civil Appeals, and also the above mentioned concerns of Karnataka need to be addressed forthwith”, a senior official in the Karnataka Water Resources Department said.

 

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