Cauvery supervisory panel declines TN plea
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Chennai: Drought-hit delta farmers will have to wait till July to wet their paddy fields. The supervisory committee on Cauvery let them down on Wednesday by declining Tamil Nadu’s plea seeking a direction to Karnataka to release 10 tmcft of water due for the month of June.
The committee found the poor inflow and storage in Karnataka and TN reservoirs sufficient to turns its back on TN. Also, the committee, which met for the second time since its constitution, bought time till July, hoping that the rains would come to its rescue.
“Looking into the deficit in inflow and very low storages in Karnataka and Tamil Nadu reservoirs, the request of TN for release of water by Karnataka was found not feasible as of now,” said senior government sources quoting the committee. The panel heard the arguments of two states in New Delhi on Wednesday.
Apart from the 10tmcft due for June, TN also demanded the release of the backlog of 53.18 tmcft of water for the irrigation year 2012-13 before Karnataka draws water for the current irrigation year. “The committee perhaps waits for rain to end the deadlock,” TN government sources sarcastically remarked, adding that TN would stand to lose as the short-term Kuruvai crop would be lost by further delay in water release from Karnataka.
TN questions decision on quantum of water
K. Karthikeyan | DCChennai: Tamil Nadu on Wednesday challenged the authority of the pro-tem supervisory committee on Cauvery to deliberate on the modification of the quantum of water prescribed by the CWDT (Cauvery water disputes tribunal).
Making her opening remarks (copy available with DC) in the second meeting of the committee at New Delhi this evening, Tamil Nadu chief secretary Sheela Balakrishnan said the Supreme Court in its May 10, 2013, order specifically stated that the task of the committee is to ensure implementation of the final order of CWDT dated February 5, 2007.
“It is not open to the committee to independently decide on matters other than what is stipulated in the final order of CWDT. Therefore, prescribing quorum and decision by majority vote in rule 5 & 8 of the draft rules of business of supervisory committee will amount to traversing beyond and contrary to the order of SC,” Ms Balakrishnan submitted seeking to withdraw the two rules.
TN strongly believes that provisions for quorum and voting and decision by majority of votes would result in vesting with the pro tem supervisory committee powers, which the SC order did not envisage, the chief secretary added reiterating that the CWDT final order, after gazette notification, was a SC decree and the committee has no liberty of interfering with the same.
Bluntly rejecting Karnataka’s claim that CWDT’s final order was subject to review, TN argued that it is only after monitoring the working of monthly schedule for five years that the question of considering any modifications in monthly schedule without changing annual allocation can be considered.
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