Cauvery dispute: K'taka, TN on alert

WATER WARS: The Cauvery tribunal's interim order in 1991 had set off a wave of violence in Karnataka.

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New Delhi: The Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal will take a final call on Monday on the controversial water-sharing dispute between Karnataka and Tamil Nadu after 16 years.

Ahead of the verdict 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 have cancelled their trips to Karnataka as a precautionary measure.

Karnataka has also secured one battalion of police force from neighbouring Andhra Pradesh, police said.

Bangalore City Police Commissioner N Achuta Rao told PTI that CCTVs have been installed at sensitive places.

The city police have rounded up 100 anti-social elements and the preventive arrests would continue, he said adding that security will be scaled up in areas where Tamils are in majority.

Security has also been beefed up in Hosur, Attibele and Anekal, bordering Tamil Nadu, Rao said. The police have also sought forces from Maharashtra, he said.

Meanwhile, Karnataka Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy held a meeting with all political parties on February 2 to drum up their support to ensure peace.

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.

The interim order had set off a wave of violence in parts of Karnataka.

WATER WARS

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

- The dispute involves the southern neighbouring states of Karnataka and Tamil Nadu, locked into a conflict that has stood in the way of a solution for more than decade.

- While Karnataka banks on Harmon Doctrine of territorial sovereignty - including sovereignty over the waters that flow through its territory - Tamil Nadu bases its argument on the doctrine of prescriptive rights.

- A Dispute Tribunal was constituted on June 2, 1990 to resolve the issue. In the past 16 years, the tribunal has held over 570 days of hearings.

- Though in early days of the Tribunal setting up, Karnataka promulgated an ordinance to nullify the tribunal in 1990, the Supreme Court held that the ordinance was unconstitutional.

- The Centre published the interim award in the December 11, 1991 gazette and the Cauvery River Authority was constituted in 1998 to ensure proper implementation of the interim award.

While Tamil Nadu urged the tribunal to pass the final award (with a share of 562 tmc ft ) Karnataka wasn’t happy with its share of 175 tmcft.

- Tamil Nadu also demanded an Authority be set up at the tribunal’s behest that allowed the state to control all specified reservoirs in Karnataka and Tamil Nadu, which according to it will ensure timely release of the due share of waters to each State as per the final award.

- Karnataka maintained that its requirement was 465 tmcft and that Tamil Nadu required only 253 tmcft. There was no need for a separate Authority.

- Both Kerala and Puducherry maintained that their share should be protected in the final award.

- In April 2006, all the concerned states completed their arguments. The verdict is expected on February 5, 2007.