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| Home Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal Announces Final Award |
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In its final award, the Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal on Monday, February 5 alloted 419 tmc ft (as against its demand of 562 tm ft) of Cauvery river water to Tamil Nadu; 270 tmc ft (as against its demand of 465 tmc ft) to Karnataka; 30 tmc ft to Kerala and 7 tmc ft to Puduchery. The Tribunal determined total availability of water in the Cauvery Basin at 740 tmc ft. The Cauvery Tribunal's award is to take effect within 90 days from the date of notification by the Government of India. The Tribunal also ordered constitution of a Regulatory Authority to monitor water releases with the help of the states concerned and the Central Water Commission for a period of five years. The final award comes 17 years after the Tribunal was constituted on June 2, 1990 and countless meetings and discussions with the four states and several organizations. The final order, which runs to over 1000 pages in five volumes, can be challenged in the Supreme Court by any of the parties to the dispute. Besides chairman N.P.Singh, the Cauvery Tribunal also comprises of two members - N.S.Rao and Sudhir Narain. Farmers and political parties in Tamil Nadu welcomed the Tribunal's final award while Karnataka is dissatisfied with the verdict. Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M.Karunanidhi said he was pleased with the Tribunal's order and expressed hope that Karnataka would implement the Tribunal's order. Karnataka's Deputy Chief Minister B.S.Yediyurappa said the state would file a petition seeking review of the Tribunal's final order. "The verdict is like serving the death warrant on the people of the state and more so on farmers of Cauvery basin," Yediyurappa said in a speech in the state Legislative Assembly. In an interim award issued on June 25, 1991, the Tribunal directed Karnataka to release 205-tmc ft of water every year to Tamil Nadu at Mettur, of which Tamil Nadu was to release six-tmc ft of water to Puduchery. The interim order led to violence against Tamils in Bangalore and a few other parts of Karnataka. Sharing of Cauvery waters has been a festering dispute between the neighboring states of Karnataka and Tamil Nadu for several decades. Hundreds of thousands of farmers in both states depend on water from the Cauvery river to cultivate their crops. River Cauvery has its origins in the verdant hills of Coorg in Karnataka and flows down to Tamil Nadu. |