DMK MPs for early notification of Cauvery Tribunal award

DMK MPs from both Houses of Parliament met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in his Parliament House office and urged him to ensure that the award is notified at the "earliest" by the Water Resources Ministry.

DMK is the main Opposition party in Tamil Nadu.

"Till the time the award is not notified, we cannot get our right over the water... It will make Karnataka to give water due to Tamil Nadu," DMK Lok Sabha member T K S Elangovan said here.

Karnataka had recently urged the prime minister not to notify the award as the state has filed a petition before the Supreme Court against it.

After nearly six years, the final award of the Cauvery Waters Dispute Tribunal will be notified by the end of this month, states sharing the disputed Cauvery river waters were informed by the Centre recently.

Once a gazette notification is issued, institutions like the Cauvery River Authority chaired by the Prime Minister and the CMC will cease to exist. The tribunal, comprising chairman Justice N P Singh and members N S Rao and Sudhir Narain, in a unanimous award in February 2007 had determined the total availability of water in the Cauvery basin at 740 thousand million cubic (tmc) feet.

In what was then described as a balancing act, the tribunal gave Tamil Nadu 419 tmc (as against the demand of 562 tmc); Karnataka 270 tmc (as against its demand of 465 tmc); Kerala 30 tmc and Puducherry 7 tmc. For environmental protection, it had reserved 10 tmc.