SC makes Cauvery award crystal clear

The Supreme Court has rapped the Centre hard on the knuckles over the Cauvery waters issue. It has seen right through the government’s move to come back to it in the guise of seeking clarifications on February 16’s final order, that too after its six-week deadline expired. The Centre’s bluff was called, and it’s been told to act to get a draft “scheme” for distribution of Cauvery waters ready by May 3, to be referred back to the four states. The looming Karnataka elections and the fear of violence vitiating the poll process can’t be allowed to interfere with the final award’s working. That award definitively spells out the formation of the Cauvery Water Management Board and Monitoring Authority for ensuring monthly water releases towards sharing the water resource annually under the final (readjusted) formula of 404.25 tmcft for Tamil Nadu, 284.75 tmcft for Karnataka, 30 tmcft for Kerala and 7 tmcft for Puducherry.

The principle behind the final award was upheld or else the very foundation of India’s federal structure could be shaken. When the bench gave its order two months ago, it had hoped to settle the 140-year-old dispute for at least the next 15 years. The move not to give that scheme a chance stemmed from a purely political motive. “It was with the stinging comment — “You have to frame the scheme, there’s no escaping this task” — that the court has told the Centre to comply. Everything else is secondary to the principle of water-sharing as enunciated in the latest judgment, and which scheme had to be seen to be initiated. It’s a different matter about whether there is sufficient water in storage in Karnataka. That could change with the southwest monsoon just weeks away. The point is any further vacillation in upholding water distribution will only cause distress to lower riparian states.

The court made it crystal clear now that the “scheme” in the February 16 order was nothing but the Cauvery Management Board. All other questions like whether it should be headed by a technical person are for the Centre to decide. The bench has said the May 3 draft scheme will be put into effect with or without changes, but only after consultations with the four states that share the Cauvery and its tributaries and distributaries. The judges also said they cannot be expected to monitor the award’s implementation, which is what the CMB must do. It will be in the interest of all Cauvery states if the February award’s finality is accepted and the waters shared as close to the formula as possible. There may be a problem in distress years, but that should not come in the way of a just system of sharing the waters as spelt out by the judges.