SC asks Karnataka to give 6,000 cusecs of water to TN till Sept 27

Mangalore Today News Network

New Delhi, Sep 20, 2016 : The Supreme Court directed Karnataka on Tuesday to release 6,000 cusecs of Cauvery river water every day to Tamil Nadu till September 27, the next date of hearing in the case.

 

The top court also directed the Centre to constitute a Cauvery Management Board within four weeks.

The ruling came a day after the Cauvery Supervisory Committee ordered Karnataka to release 3,000 cusecs of water from the river to Tamil Nadu daily between September 21 and 30.

The SC allowed Tamil Nadu, Karnataka to file objections to the committee’s report within three days. The apex court was hearing contesting claims of the two states that recently witnessed violence over the issue.

Senior advocate Fali S Nariman, who is arguing for Karnataka, said: “We will have to sacrifice our drinking water for irrigation purposes in Tamil Nadu.”

Senior advocate Shekhar Naphde, who is arguing on behalf of Tamil Nadu, said: “There is no such crises of drinking water in Bengaluru as Karnataka is claiming.”

Additional Solicitor General Pinky Anand appeared in the court to represent the Centre.

Ahead of the hearing, prohibitory orders were put in place in Mandya’s Sanjay circle in view of last week’s violence.

Karnataka home minister G Parameshwara issued elaborate guidelines for the police to deal with any eventuality and directed them to take precautionary measures to avert possible violence.

The top court had on September 5 asked Karnataka to release 15,000 cusecs of water per day for a period of 10 days to Tamil Nadu to minimise the plight of farmers there.

On September 12, the court modified the order and asked Karnataka to release 12,000 cusecs water to Tamil Nadu per day till September 20.It had turned down Karnataka’s plea to stop release Cauvery water for five days and rapped the state government for citing public unrest as a ground for seeking a modification of its earlier order to release 15,000 cusecs of water to Tamil Nadu.

The court had again on September 15 pulled up the two state governments for not stopping unruly protests following its September 12 directive to Karnataka.

The court had on September 5 asked Tamil Nadu to approach the Cauvery supervisory committee headed by Union water resources secretary Shashi Shekhar over the issue.

Both the states had submitted to the committee data about withdrawal of water, its utilisation, variation in rainfall and its impact on the actual run-off over a period of 29 years in their respective Cauvery basin areas.

Earlier, the committee had failed to arrive at any decision for want of adequate information to be made available by Tamil Nadu and Karnataka.