Govt Clinches Cauvery Deal

The Chief Ministers of Tamil Nadu and Karnataka yesterday gave the Vajpayee government a reprieve by moving a few relatively minor steps towards solving their states' deep differences on how to implement the interim award of the Cauvery Water Dispute Tribunal. After two days of consultations between the Prime Minister and the Chief Ministers of Kerala, Pondicherry and the two contending states, a government spokesperson announced that they had agreed broadly that the tribunal's award shall be implemented.

For this, they have agreed to form an Authority, comprising the Prime Minister and the four Chief Ministers, and a monitoring committee of officials to function under the Authority. Karnataka, which is to release more water to Tamil Nadu under the tribunal's award, has relented to this extent but remains intransigent on allowing the committee any powers. The spokesperson clearly stated that Karnataka wanted the committee to "only assist the Authority" and that Tamil Nadu and Pondicherry "did not accept this position." To help them bridge this crucial gap, the meeting decided to set up a Drafting Committee of officials from the states, to be chaired by the cabinet secretary. BJP general secretary M Venkaiah Naidu described the agreement as "a breakthrough," evidently relieved at the removal from the political agenda of an issue which AIADMK chief J Jayalalitha had threatened to withdraw her allies' support over the highly emotive riparian issue.

 

However, the decisions are little more than a political prop for the Vajpayee government and adequate progress to report to the Supreme Court. The court had asked the states to resolve the problem by August 12, warning that it would give no further extention. The government stated that the Drafting Committee "will look into the powers, duties, functions and role of the Monitoring Committee." While opening the meeting on Thursday, Vajpayee had called for a National Water Policy for the optimum utilisation of the country's water resources and said he hoped to offer a draft policy and guidelines for discussion with the states.