Centre submits Cauvery draft scheme to Supreme Court

The centre submitted a draft of the Cauvery Management Board scheme in accordance with the February 16 judgment of Supreme Court.

On February 16, a three-judge bench of the Supreme Court pronounced the judgment on the Cauvery Water Dispute between the states of Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Kerala and the Union Territory of Puducherry.

In terms of water distributed to Tamil Nadu and Karnataka, the draft scheme directed the regulation committee of the Cauvery Management Board (CMB) to collect "daily release of water on a monthly basis from the reservoirs as directed by the authority,"

From the infrastructure point-of-view, the centre's draft scheme has directed the CMB to ensure state governments (Tamil Nadu and Karnataka) construct "proper hydraulic structures" at every important anicut (Dam built for maintaining and regulating irrigation) sites.

The draft scheme further directed the CMB to provide data for important rain gauge stations maintained by Indian Meteorological Department and Central Water Commission.

The February 16 bench directed Karnataka to release 177.25 TMC of water, instead of the 192 TMC to Tamil Nadu. It also directed the Centre to constitute a Cauvery Management Board (CMB) in six weeks.

However, the Centre failed to form the CMB within given time frame. Following this, on April 9, the top court asked the Centre to frame a draft scheme by May 3.

The centre sought an extension of two weeks from the top court to draft the water sharing scheme.