The Congress Core Group on Friday discussed the Cauvery dispute issue amid indications that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will take a final call on notifying the final award of the Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal by month-end.
Awaiting the outcome of a meeting convened by the Centre, Karnataka Cabinet on Wednesday decided to defer till Thursday a decision on release of 6,000 cusecs of Cauvery water per day to Tamil Nadu as per the Supreme Court direction.
Today, with the Lok Sabha polls only months away, any inter-state dispute over the Cauvery water dispute has the potential to take more political turns than otherwise, predicts N Sathiya Moorthy.
The Tamil Nadu government has approached the Supreme Court seeking around Rs 2,500 crore from Karnataka for loss of crops due to non-release of Cauvery water during the irrigation year 2012-13 as per the interim award of the Cauvery water disputes tribunal
The court said the authorities are required to ensure peace till it peruses the draft scheme and finalises it for proper distribution of Cauvery water.
The top court directed the Secretary of the Union water resources ministry to personally appear before it on May 14 with a draft of the Cauvery management scheme to implement its verdict on water sharing between four states including Tamil Nadu and Karnataka.
"Why can't the two Chief Ministers sit together? Give it a try, it is not impossible," a bench of justices D K Jain and Madan B Lokur said.
The Supreme Court and its committees, the two states and the central government must become objective and take the present and not just the past in mind.
'According to politicians, farmers are the fourth grade citizens of India.' 'We farmers could meet the prime minister and ministers during Congress rule.' 'But none of the BJP ministers want to even meet us.' 'The prime minister has time only for foreigners, but has no time to meet us farmers.'
A decision to approve an amendment to the act was taken at the Union Cabinet's meeting held earlier this week. The amendment is likely to be introduced in Parliament in its next session.
Karnataka was on Tuesday directed to release 2,000 cusecs Cauvery water per day to Tamil Nadu from October 7 to 18 by the Supreme Court.
The AIADMK's Rajya Sabha members will join the DMK-led all-party delegation that will meet the Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, on June 8 to demand Cauvery water from Karnataka.
Karnataka, which is facing a political tug-of-war between the Bharatiya Janata Party and Congress-Janata Dal-Secular over government formation, had earlier made a failed bid to temporarily stall the finalisation of draft Cauvery management scheme.
Protests over the Cauvery water dispute gained momentum on Friday with Kannada outfits planning several high-voltage rallies in Bengaluru even as the state government briefed a central team on the water storage levels in reservoirs.
In anticipation of the award, police remained on alert in Bangalore, Mysore and Mandya districts in the Cauvery belt, to thwart any trouble.
There has been constant friction between Karnataka and Tamil Nadu on the Cauvery waters issue, which assumes sharp political tones quite often which is often resolved by the bounty of monsoons.
Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Monday hit out at the BJP-led government at the Centre, alleging the delay in giving approval to the construction of the Mekedatu balancing reservoir over the river Cauvery, and accused neighbouring Tamil Nadu of causing "unnecessary nuisance" on the issue.
The opposition Congress and Janata Dal Secular on Tuesday made a forceful plea in the Karnataka Legislative Assembly against notification of the 2007 Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal award, underlining that the move would amount to grave injustice to the State's interests.
Upping the ante against Karnataka for its refusal to release Cauvery water, Tamil Nadu has decided to file a contempt petition in Supreme Court besides seeking a direction for setting up two regulatory bodies to implement the Cauvery Water Dispute Tribunal's final award.
Karnataka and Tamil Nadu on Monday sparred at the meeting of Cauvery supervisory committee in New Delhi over the latter's share of the Cauvery water.
The Cauvery monitoring committee, headed by Water Resources Secy DV Singh, met on Monday morning.
Verifiable 'distress-sharing' of available water may still be the way out of the Cauvery water row, says N Sathiya Moorthy.
The bandh evoked near-total response in the Cauvery belt, particularly in the volatile districts of Mandya, Mysore and Chamarajnagar, but the overall situation remained calm.
In an interim relief to Tamil Nadu, the Supreme Court directed Karnataka on Wednesday to release 10,000 cusecs of Cauvery water per day its neighbouring state and asked the Cauvery Monitoring Committee to hold its meeting to decide the amount of water required by the states.
The award fails on some crucial tests of equity, efficiency, technology and science, says water expert Himanshu Thakkar.
The all-party meeting on the Cauvery issue decided that two senior officials nominated by the state government as its representatives to the authority and the committee would participate in the July 2 meeting to present Karnataka's views.
The verdict brings an end to the 16-year-old dispute but fears of violence loom large.
"We understand Tamil Nadu's difficulty of not getting water. We will resolve the issue," the bench said.
He however said: "Several advantageous features for Tamil Nadu find place in the verdict."
He claimed that a couple of days ago Karunanidhi had reportedly said in Thanjavur that the award was more advantageous to Tamil Nadu than to Karnataka.
After six years, the final award of the Cauvery Waters Dispute Tribunal was notified on Wednesday. The move came after the Supreme Court rapped the Centre for delaying the decision. The apex court had set February 20 as the deadline to issue the notification.
Siddaramaiah appealed to public to maintain peace, while assuring that the government 'is committed' to protect the interest of the state and its people and farmers.
Asked whether Tamil Nadu wanted early notification of the final award, he said that after the stipulated 90 days time, the state would insist on the Tribunal for the speedy implementation of the final award.
The Supreme Court on Monday pulled up the Prime Minister's Office for the way it was dealing with the Cauvery water dispute between Tamil Nadu and Karnataka. The Centre's lawyer told the court that he needed time to file a proper reply on this issue and the date for convening the Cauvery River Authority, headed by the prime minister, has not been fixed.
Finding fault with the method adopted by the CWDT in calculating the award, Kerala complained that the tribunal had taken the starting point, the inequitable imperial treaties of 1892 and 1924 to which the state was never a party.
As the House re-assembled at 1600 hours, Speaker Somnath Chatterjee appealed to members to discuss the contentious water-sharing issue in a dispassionate and responsible manner.
The Tribunal had on Tuesday last refused to hear clarificatory applications filed by Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Kerala and Puducherry.
This is the second time Jayalalithaa is resorting to a fast on the Cauvery issue.
The mind-boggling figure is spent in the legal battle seeking rights over the river before the Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal in New Delhi.
Some demonstrations have been held in parts of the state but the overall situation is peaceful.
