The Hindu                        21.02.2013

Enforcement only after civic appeals disposed of: Karnataka

S. Rajendran

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.”