The Hindu 21.02.2013
Enforcement only after civic appeals disposed of: Karnataka
The gazette notification of the final award of the
Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal by the Union government, despite the
plea of an all-party delegation from Karnataka two days ago, has come as
a rude shock to the Karnataka government and efforts are on to salvage
some pride with the request for a favourable intervention from the
Centre.
Informed sources here told
The Hindu
that there was no clear-cut mechanism as such to regulate the water flow
and to abide by the directions of the CWDT issued on February 5, 2007.
The
Chief Minister, Jagadish Shettar, made yet another representation to
the Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh, on Wednesday that the implementation
and enforcement mechanism should be finalised only after all the civil
appeals pertaining to the final award of the CWDT which are pending
before the Supreme Court are disposed of.
Interestingly,
the notification does not spell out the mechanism although the final
award makes specific mention on the constitution of a Cauvery Management
Board and a Cauvery Water Regulation Committee. Both the board and the
regulation committee are expected to function under the direct charge of
the Central Water Commission although they will comprise
representatives of all the four riparian States – Karnataka , Tamil
Nadu, Kerala and the Puducherry.
It should be noted
that under Section 6 (A) of the Inter-state River Water Disputes Act of
1956, the Union government has to frame a scheme or schemes to give
effect to the decision of a tribunal and further under each scheme an
authority has also to be established largely aimed at the implementation
of the award of a tribunal. Another added feature is that the
constitution of such an authority and the schemes that it will oversee
will have to be formulated through an act of Parliament. It is in this
sense that the ball is back in the court of the Union government and in
particular the Prime Minister.
Mr. Shettar told
The Hindu
that under the circumstances, “Karnataka is of the view that the constitution of the board will necessarily have to be delayed.”
“The
Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh, has assured that the State government
will be kept informed since we had urged that the final award should not
be notified at the present juncture. In the interregnum the Cauvery
River Authority and the Cauvery monitoring Committee should continue to
function as they have been in the past particularly in the years of
distress.”