Tribunal gives TN more Cauvery water

New Delhi: Ending a 16-year-long wait, the Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal on Monday announced its decision, allocating Tamil Nadu 419 thousand million cubic feet of water out of 740 tmcft available in the basin while Karnataka's share has been fixed at 270 TMC feet. However, the actual release by Karnataka to Tamil Nadu would be only 192 tmcft annually.

In the final order running to over 1000 pages in five volumes, the three-member Tribunal headed by retired Justice N P Singh gave its verdict that put Kerala's water share at 30 tmcft and that of Puducherry at 7 tmcft. Tamil Nadu was pleading for 562 tmcft of water while Karnataka was asking for 465 tmcft. Kerala and Puducherry were asking for 100 tmcft and 9.3 tmcft respectively in a 'normal' year.

The tribunal said its final order would supercede the agreements of 1892 and 1924 between the then governments of Madras and Mysore.

The tribunal set up in 1990 to adjudicate Cauvery river water sharing between Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Puducherry came out with its interim order in 1991 directing Karnataka to release 205 tmc ft of water on a weekly basis to Tamil Nadu.

Karnataka had opposed the setting up of the tribunal by the National Front Government in 1990 and had also enacted a law against the interim award which was later struck down by the Supreme Court. The interim award had also triggered anti-Tamil riots in Bangalore and some basin districts in Karnataka.

The final order of the Tribunal shall come into operation from the date it is notified by the Central government under the Inter-State Water Disputes Act. A notification is expected in 90 days. However, the verdict can be challenged by any of the parties in court.

The Karnataka Government said it will file a review petition before the Tribunal, seeking a review of its award, state Deputy Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa said. Karnataka Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy held a meeting with all political parties on February 2 to drum up their support to ensure peace.

Under the final verdict, the monthly release by Karnataka has been scheduled as 10 tmcft in June, 34 in July, 50 in August, 40 in September, 22 in October, 15 in November, 8 in December, 3 in January and 2.5 each in February, March, April and May.

"Since the major shareholders in the Cauvery waters are the states of Karnataka and Tamil Nadu, we order that tentative monthly deliveries during the normal year be made available by the state of Karnataka at the inter-state contact point presently identified as Biligundlu and discharge station. The quantum of 192 tmcft of water comprises 182 tmcft from the allocated share of Tamil Nadu and 10 tmcft allocated for environmental purposes," the Tribunal said.

Going by the past experience of Karnataka not honouring the interim award, Tamil Nadu had pleaded for the setting up of an Authority to administer and control all the specified reservoirs in Karnataka and Tamil Nadu so as to ensure timely release of due share of waters to each State as per the final award of the Tribunal and to ensure carry over storages of waters in the reservoirs.

Karnataka had argued that Tamil Nadu had not produced any evidence to substantiate its claim that its requirement was 562 tmcft and that there was no need for any Authority to monitor implementation of the final award.

The verdict came amid tension in Karnataka and Tamil Nadu, where inter-states buses stopped plying and schools were closed partially. With tension building up on both sides, security has been beefed up with 43 platoons of police, 18,000 security personnel and 600 home guards deployed in Karnataka to thwart any untoward incident.

Tamil Nadu state government buses cancelled trips to Karnataka as a precautionary measure. Karnataka also secured one battalion of police force from neighbouring Andhra Pradesh, police said.

Bangalore City Police Commissioner N Achuta Rao said CCTVs have been installed at sensitive places. The city police rounded up 100 anti-social elements and the preventive arrests would continue, he said, adding that security has been scaled up in areas where Tamils are in majority.

WATER WARS

- The dispute over waters of Cauvery is one of the longest running war wars of the world.

-River Cauvery known as the Dakshina Ganga orginates in Kodagu dist of Karnataka and joins the Bay of Bengal in TN.

- The disupte is officially more than 300 years old.

- The Kings of Mysore raised the issue with the British nearly 250 years back.

- The first agreement between Mysore and Madras state was signed in 1892.

- The second agreement was signed in 1924.

Karnataka has always been saying that the then King of Mysore was forced to sign by the British and the terms and conditions favour only TN.

- Karnataka refused to honour the agreement after Independence. .

-The Centre (VP Singh was the PM) constituted a Tribunal to look into the matter in June, 1990 as the centuries of negotiations bore no fruit.

- The Tribunal passed an interim order asking Karnataka to release 205 TMC Feet of water in 1991.

- Karnataka refused to honour the interim order and passed a legislation against it.

- The Supreme Court intervened and ordered Karnataka to accept the interim order, leading to widespread riots in Karnataka and TN.

-Hundreds of lives were lost, tens of thousands were rendered homeless. 20 people were killed in Bangalore alone.

- The dispute flares up whenever monsoon fails. 1995, 2002 and 2003 were the worst years.

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