The apex court said that any forum could touch the matter relating to the Cauvery basin only after it gave its verdict
New Delhi: The Supreme Court indicated Tuesday that it would deliver within a month its verdict on the decades old Cauvery water dispute between riparian states of Tamil Nadu and Karnataka, saying enough confusion has been created on it for over two decades.
The top court said that any forum could touch the matter relating to the Cauvery basin, only after it gave its verdict in four weeks.
A three-judge bench of the top court had reserved its verdict on the appeals filed by Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Kerala against the 2007 award of the Cauvery Water Dispute Tribunal (CWDT) on sharing of water, after marathon hearing September 20, 2017.
“Enough of confusion has been there for past two decades. Any forum can touch the matter after the verdict is delivered in the issue. We will give the verdict in four weeks,” a bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justices A M Khanwilkar and D Y Chandrachud said.
The court’s remark came during the hearing of a plea filed in 2016 by a citizens’ group led by philanthropist Kiran Mazumdar Shaw seeking its intervention for supply of drinking water to residents of Bangalore and surrounding districts.
The group under the banner of Bangalore Political Action Committee (BPAC) in which Shaw is the president and former Infosys director and educationist Mohandas Pai the Vice-President, had told the court that citizens of Bengaluru need adequate drinking water and their right to life needed to be protected by the top court.
“That the present application is being filed by the applicant in the aftermath of the violence that took place in the city of Bangalore, since the applicant is of the belief that there are extraordinary circumstances in the city and its adjoining areas which needs to be addressed through the intervention of this court,” the BPAC plea said.
“There is an acute drinking water problem in the city of Bengaluru and certain other districts of South Karnataka. The annual requirement of Bangalore city alone is more than 19 TMC of water to be supplied to the citizens by the authorities of the state of Karnataka. The annual drinking water requirements of the Cauvery basin districts including the Bangalore is roughly about 26 TMC (approximately),” it said.
Demand for Mahanadi tribunal reiterated
Bhubaneswar: In the wake of the Supreme Court’s indication on the Cauvery dispute, the ruling BJD Tuesday said that it is high-time the Centre consider Orissa’s demand and set up a tribunal to resolve the Mahanadi row. “We want the Centre to set up a tribunal to resolve the Mahanadi issue and direct the Chhattisgarh government to stop all projects in the upstream right away,” said minster and former BJD chief whip Ananta Das. He alleged that on the pretext of resolving the Mahanadi dispute through talks the Centre is helping Chhattisgarh, while undermining Orissa’s interest.
PNN/Agencies
