Govt to submit Cauvery report in SC on May 14
The Centre will be presenting a draft Cauvery water sharing scheme directly to the Supreme Court on May 14 -- two days after the polling for the Karnataka assembly elections -- and get a formal Cabinet approval later.
On the sidelines of a press conference, water resources minister Nitin Gadkari said there was no need to get Cabinet approval for the scheme before presenting it to the apex court.
“The draft scheme is ready and there is no need to present it before the Cabinet at this stage,” the minister said.
The Centre on May 3 told the Supreme Court that it had been unable to finalise the draft Cauvery water sharing scheme for Karnataka and Tamil Nadu by the May 3 deadline set by the top court because Prime Minister Narendra Modi and other central ministers had been busy campaigning for the Karnataka elections. The results are due on May 15.
The Supreme Court had pulled up the Centre for failing to come up with a plan to implement its verdict on the distribution of Cauvery waters. The Centre had earlier sought three months for finalising the scheme, citing the upcoming Karnataka elections and the sensitivity of the Cauvery water sharing issue.Tamil Nadu called the delay an election tactic.
“We will present the scheme before the court and the court will then share details with the states. The scheme will be finalised after that as we want inputs from the states as well,’’ said a senior official in the water resources ministry who asked not to be named.
“We were delaying the scheme because of Karnataka’s opposition. We want the scheme to work and get all states on board,’’ the official added.
HT reported last month, citing an official who requested anonymity, that the Centre would base the Cauvery scheme on the Bhakra Beas Management Board. The official has said the scheme was likely to be overseen by an authority with a mix of both administrators as well as technocrats, as opposed to the recommendations by the Cauvery Water Dispute Tribunal, which had proposed a board run by technocrats. Karnataka had on April 26 written to the Centre seeking a committee that would include the water resources minister of the state.
On February 16, the Supreme Court ruled on the case, based on appeals by the states to the 2007 order of the Cauvery Water Dispute Tribunal. The SC order reduced the quantity of water Karnataka was asked to supply to Tamil Nadu by 14.75 tmc (thousand million cubic litres).
The Tribunal had ordered the formation of a Cauvery Management Board to decide on the distribution of Cauvery water to Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Puducherry.