Cauvery Verdict: Key Highlights From Supreme Court's Decision on Water Supply to Tamil Nadu and Karnataka
Originally Tamil Nadu was awarded 192 TMC water which has now been reduced to 177.25 TMC with Supreme Court order. Karnataka will get an additional 14.75 TMC.
New Delhi, February 16: The Supreme Court on Friday in its judgement on Cauvery water dispute said that no ‘one state’ can claim ownership of a river. The dispute that has been going on for decades is between the neighbouring states of Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, and Kerala. With the new Cauvery verdict in place, the Supreme Court has decided that 177.25 TMC of Cauvery water to be released for Tamil Nadu while Karnataka will get an additional 14.75 TMC of water.
Originally Tamil Nadu was awarded 192 TMC water which has now been reduced to 177.25 TMC with Supreme Court order. Meanwhile, Karnataka will get additional 14.75 TMC water to provide drinking water to Bengaluru city. In 2007, the Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal (CWDT) had ordered 419 TMC for Tamil Nadu, 270 TMC for Karnataka, 30 TMC for Kerala & seven TMC for Puducherry.
Cauvery Dispute: Karnataka gets additional 14.75 TMC water, Tamil Nadu to study order
The Apex Court in its judgement on Friday made it clear that increase in the share of Cauvery water for Karnataka by 14.75 TMC has been done keeping in view the fact that there is an increased demand of drinking water by Bengaluru & also for many industrial activities. In its judgement, the Apex Court said that 20 TMC of groundwater in Tamil Nadu had not been accounted for & needed to be seen. “We believe in the verdict of the court & respect it. Surely, this is not enough. We have raised the shortfall of water with Union Minister Nitin Gadkari who have two plans to address the issue, one of which is linking river Godavari with Kallanai”, A Navaneethakrishnan, Tamil lawyer was quoted by ANI.
Karnataka and Tamil Nadu have enforced massive security arrangements in place, hours ahead of the Supreme Court's verdict on the long-standing dispute between the two states. As a precautionary measure, the Tamil Nadu state transport corporation has decided against running bus services to Karnataka. In all, about 180 bus services operate between the two states every day.
To recall, the bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra, Justice Amitava Roy and Justice AM Khanwilkar had reserved the verdict on 20 September, 2017 after hearing the matter for 29 days spread over eight months. Both the states-Tamil Nadu and Karnataka had then approached the top court soon after the 2007 award was announced, assailing it on several counts.
The Tamil Nadu Government, on January 9, 2017, had sought a compensation of Rs 2,480 crore from Karnataka for not releasing water to the state despite getting the Supreme Court directive to do so.
As per reports, the Centre had opposed the top court adjudicating over the Cauvery River Water Dispute Award, contending that the appeals by the three states and the union territory of Puducherry were not maintainable as under the Constitution's Article 262 read with Section 11 of the Inter-State River Water Disputes Act, 1956, the top court was barred from hearing the appeals.
(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Feb 16, 2018 11:38 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).