Centre told not to notify Cauvery tribunal award

Former Prime Minister and JD(S) chief H D Deve Gowda on Tuesday questioned the Centre’s “hurry” on the issue of notifying the Cauvery Water Dispute Tribunal’s final award in gazette when the Ravi-Beas River water sharing verdict has not been notified even after 20 years.

“Why there is so much of a hurry? Karnataka’s stand that the Centre decide on notifying the February 5, 2007 final award after hearing its views should be respected,” he demanded at a press conference here.

Tamil Nadu, locked in a row with upper riparian state of Karnataka on sharing of the inter-state river water, has been demanding notification of the final award of the tribunal which has allocated 491 TMC of water to it. Karnataka was given 270 TMC and Kerala 30 TMC and Puducherry 7 TMC.

Gowda said the tribunal award on the Ravi-Beas river water sharing dispute involving Haryana and Punjab had not been notified. Gowda said he has sought the intervention of three union ministers representing Karnataka — M Mallikarjun Kharge, M Veerappa Moily, K Rehman Khan, besides former chief minister N Dharam Singh to prevail upon their government at the Centre against notifying the tribunal order.

The Centre has informed the Supreme Court recently that it would take steps to notify the final order by January 31. Gowda pointed out that Tamil Nadu in its Special Leave Petition before the apex court seeking a direction to Karnataka for water release itself has asked the court to spell out a distress formula for water sharing and wanted the Centre to look into these aspects.

He also urged that Cauvery Monitoring Board should not be constituted to implement the final award as Karnataka was already facing severe shortage for drinking water due to depleted storage level in Cauvery basin reservoirs after releasing water to Tamil Nadu on two occasions recently.

Cauvery basin areas including Bangalore require at least 50 tmc ft of water to meet drinking water needs, he said. Gowda, whose party enjoys good chunk of support base in Cauvery basin districts, said he did not want to gain political mileage out of his demand on Cauvery issue. Karnataka goes to assembly polls by this April-May.