Lok Sabha Debates
Need To Resolve Cauvery Water Dispute. on 17 November, 2016
Sixteenth Loksabha an> Title: Need to resolve Cauvery Water Dispute.
SHRI B. SENGUTTUVAN (VELLORE): The sharing of the Cauvery Water since 1974 has been a bone of contention primarily between the States of Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. The Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal passed its unanimous Final Award in the year 2007 assessing the total Cauvery Water availability in the basin at 740 TMC and it allocated 409 TMC to Tamil Nadu, 270 TMC to Karnataka, 30 TMC to Kerala and 7 TMC to Puducherry. The award is still in force and is binding on all the parties to the dispute. The award was notified on 20-02-2013. To implement the award, the Supreme Court directed the Centre for constitution of the Cauvery Management Board. The States sent the list of their representatives to the Cauvery Management Board. However, the Centre approached the Supreme Court and in a complete U-turn it stated that in terms of sub-section(7) of section 6-A of the Interstate Rivers Water Dispute Act, the Centre is required to devise the scheme for implementation of the award of the tribunal and the same shall be placed before the Parliament. This new provision is a needless and obfuscatory provision. Since the Centre has not made use of this in all these years in respect of any award by tribunal, it may as well initiate the move to repeal this provision as well. As the purpose of the law is to end all disputes and legal squabbles at the earliest and not to father new and unending ones. The Centre has to act firmly and resolutely in this issue. A grave situation has arisen in which the Tamil diaspora has been subjected to vicious attacks, their properties worth hundreds of crores were looted and torched despite the Supreme Court sternly warning against the violence. In this scenario, I request the Hon'ble Prime Minister to ensure the protection of linguistic minorities wherever they live and ensure that adequate compensation is paid for their losses and I request the Hon'ble Minister for Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation to play a proactive role to initiate the necessary process of amendment of the Inter-State Rivers Water Dispute Act for repeal of sub-section (7) of section 6-A.