PM busy in K’taka, Cauvery Board in 10 days: A-G to SC

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s preoccupation with electioneering in Karnataka was the reason cited by Attorney General KK Venugopal to seek additional 10-day time from the Supreme Court to finalise the scheme for forming the Cauvery Management Board.

Upset over delay in setting up the Cauvery Management Board, Tamil Nadu had filed a contempt petition against the Centre for not acting on the February 16 Supreme Court order to set up the Board for finalising the water-sharing scheme between Karnataka and Tamil Nadu.

Arguing on its contempt petition against the Centre, Tamil Nadu counsel senior advocate Shekhar Naphade accused the Union Government of “politicising” the issue as for two months nothing has been done.

The Attorney General, who stood up to respond on behalf of the Centre, said, “A draft of the scheme has been placed before the Cabinet. Due to elections, the Prime Minister and other Ministers are in Karnataka.” When the SC Bench said by now the scheme could have been finalised, Venugopal added, “The PM was travelling of late and after coming back from abroad, he has gone to Karnataka. We are asking for 10 more days.”

With Karnataka not adhering to the SC order to supply 2.5 tmcft of water to Tamil Nadu between March and April, Tamil Nadu counsel said that the State was answerable to its people who are demanding reasons why they are being deprived of water for agriculture purposes. Fed up by the dilly-dallying by the Centre, Naphade said that this was a classic case to show the defeat of cooperative federalism where a State is placed at the mercy of the Centre.

The Bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra, Justices AM Khanwilkar and DY Chandrachud took Karnataka to task asking the state counsel why only 1.1 tmcft of water had been released instead of 2.5 tmcft of water in April. The Bench threatened to summon the Chief Secretary of the State under contempt but calmed down after senior advocate Shyam Divan submitted that the State was not served any notice due to which he obtained no instructions.

The court told Karnataka that it must state whether it was willing to release 4 tmc of water by May end. In any case, the court directed the State to supply at least 2.5 tmcft of water by Tuesday when the matter will next be heard. The court directed the Centre to file an affidavit indicating steps taken to finalise the scheme for formation of the Cauvery Management Board. The Cauvery river water is to be shared between Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Puducherry.

The top court had on February 16 raised the 270 tmcft share of Cauvery water for Karnataka by 14.75 tmcft and reduced Tamil Nadu’s share, while compensating it by allowing extraction of 10 tmcft groundwater from the river basin. As per the verdict, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Kerala and Puducherry would be annually entitled to 404.25 tmcft, 284.75 tmcft, 30 tmcft and 7 tmcft of Cauvery water respectively out of a total of 740 tmcft.