New Delhi: The Supreme Court Monday told the Tamil Nadu government that it can raise before the Cauvery Water Management Authority (CWMA) its grievance concerning the release of the proportionate share of Cauvery water from Karnataka.
The Cauvery Water Regulation Committee (CWRC) had directed Karnataka to release 12,000 cusecs of water daily to Tamil Nadu for 15 days from August 12. The CWMA subsequently upheld the decision.
The observation came from a bench of Justices Vikram Nath and Sandeep Mehta after senior advocate C S Vaidyanathan, appearing for Tamil Nadu, said they have not received the proportionate share of water.
We have to receive the proportionate share of water. Unfortunately, that is not happening, Vaidyanathan told the bench.
When he argued that the CWMA was not giving direction to release proportionate share of Cauvery water, the bench said the state can raise this issue before the authority.
The bench was informed that the CWMA was scheduled to hold a meeting August 25.
The top court was hearing the Tamil Nadu government’s plea seeking directions to the Karnataka government for immediate release of the water to it.
During the hearing, the bench told Vaidyanathan that on the last date of hearing, senior advocate Shyam Divan, appearing for the Karnataka government, had placed before it a chart giving details of the water released.
The bench observed that as per the chart, water was released to Tamil Nadu as per the CWMA’s direction.
The CWMA is not giving direction for releasing proportionate water, Vaidyanathan said, adding, I (Tamil Nadu) cannot release a single drop of water to farmers. They (Karnataka) are releasing water to farmers.
The bench posted the matter for August 31 and asked both the parties to come up with updated status.
August 17, the apex court had asked Karnataka to ensure compliance of the CWMA direction on the release of Cauvery water to Tamil Nadu.
While the Tamil Nadu government had claimed before the court that the CWMA’s direction was not being complied with, the Karnataka government had said the picture being projected was extremely incorrect.
The Tamil Nadu government had earlier said the state was not getting its due share of Cauvery water in a rain-deficient year.
The Joseph Vijay-led state government August 3 approached the apex court seeking directions to the Karnataka government for immediate release of the water.
The state government, in its plea, claimed that the quantum allocated to it by the CWRC as well as that released by its neighbour Karnataka was far less.
A CWRC meeting July 28 directed Karnataka to release 3,500 cusecs for 15 days starting July 29. However, the quantum of water released at Biligundlu ranged between 158 and 550 cusecs from July 29 to August 2, the state government said.
A press release issued by the Tamil Nadu government said that as of August 3, the combined total storage in the reservoirs in Karnataka — KRS, Kabini, Harangi and Hemavathy — stood at 77.537 TMC (thousand million cubic feet) and Karnataka would face no difficulty in releasing Tamil Nadu’s due share proportionately.
Following rains in the catchment areas in the KRS and Kabini dams in Karnataka recently, the proportionate water to be released at Biligundlu should be 26.954 TMC, it said.
Accordingly, the Cauvery Water Management Authority order allocating 4.536 TMC is very less, the release added.
Karnataka has failed to share with Tamil Nadu its due share of water, and the quantum was 26.954 TMC, the press release said.
