Chennai: The Central government has no option but to constitute the Cauvery Management Board (CMB) and the Cauvery Water Regulatory Committee (CWRC) within six weeks as per the Supreme Court verdict as the “scheme” mentioned in the February 16 order of the apex court referred to CMB and another body.
Expressing this in unequivocal terms, the state government on Saturday said it had conveyed this to the Centre at the meeting held at the national capital on Friday. “Tamil Nadu had clearly emphasised at the meeting (on Friday) that the word ‘scheme’ mentioned in the February 16 Supreme Court order was only setting up the Cauvery Management Board and the Cauvery Water Regulatory Committee as envisaged under Clause 6 (A) of Inter-state Rivers Act of 1956,” Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami said on Saturday. Reiterating that the Centre has no other alternative but to set up the CMB and the CWRC within six weeks as per the court order, he said in a statement here that all the MPs from Tamil Nadu were also agitating for this cause.
His statement comes after Chief Secretary Girija Vaidyanathan called on him at the secretariat earlier in the day and apprised him about the deliberations on Friday's meeting in New Delhi on the Cauvery issue.
The meeting, convened by the Union Water Resources Ministry with all the stakeholders in the inter-state river dispute — Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Kerala and Puducherry, had discussed the modalities of a scheme to be implemented.
The apex court in its February 16 order, had only altered the quantum of water to be released to Tamil Nadu (reducing it by 14.75 tmcft to 177.25 tmcft as against 192 tmcft allocated in the final award) and has not changed any other clauses of the final award of the Cauvery Disputes Tribunal, he said and added that "the State government had insisted in yesterday's meeting that the Centre has no other alternative, but to constitute the CMB and the CWRC within six weeks as per the apex court order and this point was made very clear."
The state government, which was functioning on the path shown by late chief minister J. Jayalalithaa, would continue to play a constructive role in upholding Tamil Nadu's rights on the Cauvery issue and protect the farmers' interest, Mr Palaniswami said.
