Top court refuses to defer Cauvery trials

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Wednesday rejected Karnataka’s plea to adjourn hearings in the Cauvery water sharing case to July on the grounds that there was no government in the state following Tuesday’s assembly election results.

The court also directed the Centre to file a modified scheme before it on Thursday. The Karnataka government said during Wednesday’s hearing it would like to file objections on the Centre’s draft scheme on distributing the waters of the Cauvery river.

The Kerala government, also which is a beneficiary in the scheme, also objected to the Centre’s draft, contending it got only 4% of the water but was expected to shell out 15% of the cost towards the Cauvery Management Board (CMB). It said control of dams and reservoirs should lie with states and not the CMB.

The Tamil Nadu government, meanwhile, objected to Centre’s proposal to have the headquarters of the CMB in Bengaluru. The government filed the draft scheme before on Monday outlining its proposal to follow the court’s February judgment allocating the share of the waters of the Cauvery river, weeks after being pulled up for failing to implement the court’s order.

Karnataka and Tamil Nadu have fought over the river for more than a century now. On February 16, the SC reduced the quantity of water Karnataka was asked to supply to TN by 14.75 tmc (thousand million cubic litres).