A day after Karnataka stopped releasing Cauvery water to Tamil Nadu, the Supreme Court on Monday declined to interfere with the Cauvery Monitoring Committee’s (CMC) recent order to give 12 tmcft water to Tamil Nadu for December, though both sides panned the award.
With the bench refusing to budge, senior counsel C S Vaidyanathan, representing Tamil Nadu, demanded that the CMC order be implemented immediately.
“I want the water they (CMC) decided to be released immediately,” he said.
Karnataka’s counsel Anil Divan said it will be released by this month-end subject to their appeal at the Cauvery River Authority (CRA).
“We said we’ll release in December and we will release in December,” he assured while fending off demands for its immediate release.
Divan’s position was curious as Chief Minister Jagadish Shettar informed the State Assembly on Monday that water was recently released to only comply with the Supreme Court’s order to avoid legal complications. “But since yesterday (Sunday) we have stopped releasing water,” he said. It remains to be seen if Tamil Nadu will eventually get 12 tmcft by this month-end.
The apex court bench comprising justices D K Jain and Madan B Lokur said in its order, “Both the States are not satisfied with the directions of the CMC. Without comments, we leave it to the parties to work it out.”
The bench posted the matter for further hearing on January 4 after noting that the order of the Committee is for the month of December.
Kerala and Puducherry are the other two member states of the CMC which is headed by the Union Secretary, Water Resources.
“It would seem equitable if Karnataka should manage water in such a way that Tamil Nadu receives 12 Thousand Million Cubic (TMC) feet during the month of December, 2012,” the Committee had said in its interim award on December 7.