Cauvery storm gathers strength

Chennai/Thanjavur/ New Delhi: The Tamil Nadu government has decided to file a contempt petition in the Supreme Court on Saturday against the Centre for not constituting a Cauvery Management Board (CMB) to aid and supervise the sharing of the river water among the riparian states of Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Puducherry.

According to reliable sources, state PWD secretary S.K. Prabhakar and Cauvery technical cell chairman Subramaniam will reach Delhi on Friday evening to finalise the arrangements for filing the contempt petition in the Supreme Court next morning.

The government decision was finalised at a meeting of senior ministers and officials chaired by chief minister K. Palaniswami at the Secretariat Thursday morning, even as some farmer outfits launched agitations in different parts of the states and threatened to step up their stir if the Centre remained blind to their Cauvery crisis. The Opposition parties, led by the DMK, have been stingingly critical of the government accusing it of not pressing hard enough on the Centre only due to fear of retribution considering the AIADMK’s post-Jayalalithaa vulnerability.

The Supreme Court had on February 16 set a six-week deadline for the Centre to set up a “scheme” to ensure its order “is smoothly made functional and the rights of the States as determined by us (SC) are appositely carried out”. Insisting that the need-based monthly releases stated in the order must be respected, the court “made clear that no extension shall be granted for framing of the scheme on any ground”.

The SC deadline ended on March 29 with no sign of the Centre moving on the creation of the “scheme” envisaged in the SC order. Now the Centre is readying a petition for moving before the Apex Court on Saturday seeking clarification on what the court meant by “scheme”.

Needless to say, TN farmers and opposition leaders have slammed this move as being a delaying tactic in view of the BJP stakes in the upcoming Assembly elections in Karnataka.

In its February 16 verdict on the petitions from Tamil Nadu and Karnataka on the final order of the Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal apportioning the river water among the riparian states, the apex court had raised the 270 tmcft share of Karnataka by 14.75 tmcft and reduced Tamil Nadu’s share. The court had compensated Tamil Nadu’s reduction by allowing extraction of 10 tmcft ground water from the river basin. Since the verdict, Tamil Nadu has been urging the Centre to set up the CMB and the Central Water Regulatory Committee (CWRC) to ensure it received its due share of water.