Centre Submits Draft Cauvery Management Scheme in SC

The apex court had asked the Centre to form a scheme to ensure compliance of its judgment on Cauvery dispute.

Tamil Nadu and Karnataka have been sparring over the Cauvery waters for over two decades.

(Photo Courtesy: Wikimedia Commons)

The Centre on Monday, 14 May, submitted the draft Cauvery management scheme to ensure smooth distribution of water between Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Puducherry, before the Supreme Court for its perusal and approval.

A bench, comprising Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justices AM Khanwilkar and DY Chandrachud, took on record the draft scheme submitted by the Union Water Resource secretary and said it would peruse it.

"We need to examine whether the said scheme is in consonance with our judgment," the bench said, adding that it would consider and approve the scheme on 16 May.

The apex court said that it will not go into “correctness of the scheme” and rather confine itself to whether the scheme was in consonance with its 16 February judgment.

The top court had on 8 May summoned the secretary of the Union Water Resources Ministry to appear before it on Monday, with the draft scheme and warned the Centre that it was in "sheer contempt" of the 16 February verdict by not framing the Cauvery management scheme on river water sharing between the four southern riparian states till now.

The apex court had on 16 February asked the Centre to formulate a scheme to ensure compliance of its judgment on the decades-old Cauvery dispute.

It had modified the Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal (CWDT) award of 2007 and made it clear that it will not be extending time for this on any ground.

The top court had then raised the 270 tmcft share of Cauvery water for Karnataka by 14.75 tmcft and reduced Tamil Nadu's share. At the same time, it compensating it by allowing extraction of 10 tmcft groundwater from the river basin, saying the issue of drinking water has to be placed on a "higher pedestal".

Cauvery Dispute Can Be Solved If Politics Stands Aside: Kamal Haasan

Speaking about the issue, politician and actor Kamal Haasan had on Wednesday, 9 May said that the Cauvery water dispute between Karnataka and Tamil Nadu wasn’t an “insurmountable” problem and that it could be resolved without involving politics.

It is not such an insurmountable problem. If politics will just stand aside, logic will come in place, logistics will come in place, then we can quickly solve the problem.

Kamal Hasan, as reported by PTI

Later in the day, Kamal Hasan met DMK working president MK Stalin regarding the formation of Cauvery Water Management Board.

Speaking at a special session of industry body Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry's National Executive Committee Meeting, he further added that if the whole issue was left to “actual users” of the waters, such as farmers, then a solution would emerge.

“Politics is meddling with it. Too many cooks are spoiling the river but what we can do best in such situation is conserve water,” he said.