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Monday
September 30, 2002
1546 IST

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Supreme Court asks Tamil Nadu to cooperate on Cauvery issue

Coming to the aid of Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, the Supreme Court on Monday asked Tamil Nadu to extend all cooperation to the Cauvery Monitoring Committee in carrying out its directive to assess the ground situation regarding availability of water for crops in the two states.

Expressing concern over the non-implementation of the prime minister's directive, a three-judge bench comprising Chief Justice B N Kirpal, Justice K G Balakrishnan and Justice Arijit Pasayat directed the CMC to complete the assessment and submit a report to Vajpayee before October three.

The bench directed a copy of the report to be placed before the Court on October four, when the matter would be taken up for further consideration.

On the contempt petition filed by Tamil Nadu against Karnataka Chief Minister S M Krishna, Water Resources Minister H K Patil and chief secretary of the state, the bench asked them to file their responses within three days.

The bench had earlier issued show cause notices to the respondents.

Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee had directed the CMC to visit the reservoirs in Karnataka and Tamil Nadu and the Cauvery basin area and assess the ground situation.

Appearing for the CMC, Additional Solicitor General Mukul Rohtagi submitted that due to non-cooperation of Tamil Nadu, the team could not visit the areas in the state and demanded police protection.

Appearing for Tamil Nadu, senior advocate K K Venugopal contended that directives of both the Supreme Court and the Cauvery River Authority headed by the Prime Minister for daily release of 1.25 tmcft and 0.8 tmcft water respectively was violated by Karnataka amounting to contempt of court.

Karnataka counsel, senior advocate Anil Divan, contended that Tamil Nadu was the sole beneficiary of the return monsoon and that any release of water would harm the standing crops in the state.

Terming this argument as delaying tactics, Venugopal submitted that this way Karnataka wanted to avoid the contempt proceedings.

Earlier, when Rohtagi contended that the team had visited Karnataka but could not do so in regard to Tamil Nadu due to lack of cooperation, the bench asked him to point out the kind of cooperation they wanted from the state. The additional solicitor general, after a lot of hesitation, said that the matter was sensitive to both the states and that the team needed police protection to visit Tamil Nadu.

The bench then said, "We direct the Cauvery Monitoring Committee to complete its task of inspection of the Mettur dam as well as assess the ground situation in the Cauvery basin as directed by the prime minister and submit a report to him on or before October three. A copy of the report be filed before the Court on October four."

Cauvery Water Dispute: The Complete Coverage

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