Centre places draft Cauvery scheme for river water sharing in Supreme Court
New Delhi: In a huge relief to Tamil Nadu, the Centre on Monday submitted the ‘draft scheme’ for implementation of the February 16 judgment on allocation of water among the States of Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Union Territory of Puducherry.
The scheme is more or less similar to the Cauvery Management Board contemplated in the Tribunal award. It says the decision of the authority to be vested with the implementation of the judgment is binding on all the States, says the scheme.
The Water Resources Secretary U.P. Singh who appeared in the court in response to the contempt plea filed by Tamil Nadu, presented the scheme in a ‘sealed cover’ to the Bench comprising the Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justices A.M. Kanwilkar and D.Y. Chandrachud. The Bench while asking the States to respond to the scheme posted the matter for further hearing on May 16.
The CJI while making it clear that the court would not go into the legality of the scheme asked the States to give their views whether the scheme is in consonance with the February 16 verdict, which has held that the release of water as mandated under the Cauvery Tribunal award of February 2007 would remain in force for 15 years and no further litigation would be entertained in this regard..
Attorney General K.K. Venugopal told the court that the Centre had not given any name to the scheme, which could be a Board, Authority or a Committee and it would be upto the court to suggest the name.
The structure of the scheme is almost similar to the Cauvery Management Board, which will set up the Cauvery Water Regulation Committee.
The 10 member Board/Authority including the Secretary with headquarters in Bengaluru, has been empowered to monitor the entire spectrum of monthly availability of storages and rainfall pattern vis-a-vis the schedule of monthly flows to be delivered at Billigundulu/inter-State contact point for a period of 15 years and to effect the necessary adjustments in the monthly schedule.
It will have a Chairman, who will be an eminent engineer, two full time and two part time members each to be appointed by the Centre (who will be from Water resources and agriculture ministries) and four part time members to be represented by the four states. While the Centre will contribute Rs. 2 crores for setting up of this authority, four States together will contribute another Rs. 2 cores (in the ration of Kerala 15 %, TN and Karnataka, 40 % each and Puducherry 5 %). It says that eight important reservoirs in Kerala, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu.
