SC to hear plea to set up Cauvery Management Board on Dec 3

The Supreme Court will hear on December 3 the Tamil Nadu government's plea for setting up of a board to ensure implementation of the Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal award.
A bench headed by Chief Justice P Sathasivam, before whom the matter was mentioned by Tamil Nadu counsel, posted the case for hearing on that day.
The state in its application sought court's intervention to set up the Cauvery Management Board as alleging that Karnataka is planing to construct a hydro-power station at Mekedatu and for which three reservoirs were planned across Cauvery river.
It alleged that the proposed reservoir is illegal and would affect the flow of Cauvery river considerably and also irrigation in Tamil Nadu.

The final award of the Cauvery Waters Dispute Tribunal was notified by Centre on February 20 after the Supreme Court rapped the Centre for delaying the decision.
The Tribunal, comprising chairman Justice N P Singh and members N S Rao and Sudhir Narain, in an unanimous award in February, 2007 had determined the total availability of water in the Cauvery basin at 740 thousand million cubic (TMC) feet at the Lower Coleroon Anicut site.

The proceedings of the Tribunal, set up in June, 1990, went on for more than 16 years.
In what was then described as a balancing act, the Tribunal gave Tamil Nadu 419 TMC of water (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.
After the issuance of the notification, institutions like the Cauvery River Authority (CRA) chaired by the Prime Minister and the CMC ceased to exist and new organisations like the Cauvery Management Board and the Cauvery Water Regulation Committee are to be constituted which will have representatives from all the co-basin states, experts in hydrology and agriculture.
They will be headed by an officer of the central government and will be under the control of the Centre.