NEW DELHI: The
Supreme Court on Tuesday reprimanded the Centre and said it is in "sheer contempt" of the February judgment on
Cauvery water sharing by not framing the scheme required for implementation of water distribution between Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Kerala and Union Territory of Puducherry.
"We do not want to come back to square one. Once judgement has been delivered, it has to be implemented," the top court told the Centre.
The
SC also ordered the Union water resources secretary to remain personally present in court on May 14 at 10.30 am with the draft scheme on the Cauvery water sharing mechanism and supervising authority.
During the hearing, counsel for Tamil Nadu Shekhar Naphade took a dig at PM
Narendra Modi over the delay in framing the draft scheme and said "someone boasts that he works 24x7 for the citizens".
The Karnataka government had on Monday filed an affidavit before the apex court, claiming the latter released more water from Cauvery river to Tamil Nadu than what was allotted to it while settling the dispute.
On February 16, a three-judge bench of the Supreme Court pronounced the judgement on the Cauvery water dispute between the states of Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Kerala and Puducherry.
The bench directed Karnataka to release 177.25 TMC of water, instead of the 192 TMC to Tamil Nadu. It also directed the Centre to constitute a
Cauvery Management Board (CMB) in six weeks.
However, the Centre failed to form the CMB within given time frame. Following this, on April 9, the top court asked the Centre to frame a draft scheme by May 3, which the latter failed to do.
