Chief Minister Jagadish Shettar on Monday urged Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to convene a meeting of the Cauvery River Authority (CRA) before taking any decision on notifying the final orders of the Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal.
In his letter, Shettar asked Singh to elicit the opinion of all the four states — Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Puducherry.
He also sought a clarification if the notification can be issued when two cases — an original suit before the Supreme Court filed by all the four states questioning the final award and clarification application before the tribunal itself — were yet to disposed of.
Opposition leader Siddaramaiah opined that the Centre cannot notify the final order until the original suit and clarification applications are disposed. The union water resources secretary during the Cauvery Monitoring Committee (CMC) meeting last Friday had said that steps would be taken to notify the final award by this month-end.
“By saying so, the CMC has exceeded its limits. It has no authority to make such commitment. The SC had only asked status report on issuing the notification. But CMC went out of the way and said that it would notify the award,” Water Resources Minister Basavaraj Bommai told the Assembly.
He also expressed concern over the insistence of the Tamil Nadu government on the notification of the final award much against its stand during the Karunanidhi regime.
“Both Karnataka and Tamil Nadu opposed the notification. But J Jayalalithaa after assuming power, suddenly changed her stand and has written three letters to the PM demanding notification. We need to consider this development carefully,” Bommai said.