The Supreme Court on Monday directed Karnataka to release 2 TMC (Thousand Million Cubic feet) of Cauvery water to Tamil Nadu and pulled up the Centre for inaction on the notification of the final award of the Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal (CWDT).
The apex court directed the Centre to notify the award by February 20.
Tamil Nadu began releasing water from Mettur, immediately after the apex court on Monday directed the state to release 2 TMC water from the reservoir to save standing crop.
The Supreme Court also asked the Central Water Commission (CWC) to file a report on the water requirement of the two warring states. Directing the CWC Chairman to constitute an expert committee of three members to determine TN’s water requirement, the court said the members must visit the delta areas of Thiruvaroor, Thanjavur and Nagapattinam districts and submit a report on the status of paddy crop by Wednesday.
A Bench of justices R M Lodha, J Chelameswar and Madan B Lokur made it clear that regardless of the report that may be given by the expert committee, Karnataka must release 2 TMC of water to replenish what is released from Mettur.
On notifying the final CWDT award dated Feb 5, 2007, Justice Lodha said, “Section 6 of the Inter State River Water Disputes Act, 1956, mandates the Central Government to publish the decision of the Tribunal in the official gazette.”