NEW DELHI: The Union government on Wednesday told the Supreme Court that it would take a decision regarding constitution of interstate river water disputes tribunal on the lines of Cauvery tribunal within four weeks to resolve the dispute between Tamil Nadu and Karnataka over the latter building a dam across Markandeya River, a tributary of Thenpennaiyar, at Yarkol in Karnataka.
The submissions were made before the bench of Justices MR Shah and MM Sundresh in a suit filed by the Tamil Nadu government. Additional Solicitor General Aishwarya Bhati also told the court that the complaint by Tamil Nadu was referred to a negotiation committee and since there was no likelihood of settlement by negotiation, the Centre will likely constitute a tribunal to resolve the dispute between the two states within the next four weeks. Accordingly, the bench posted the matter to December 14, 2022.
With regard to the dispute raging since 2007, Tamil Nadu had filed a suit in Supreme Court on May 18, 2018, seeking a permanent injunction on the project. In its petition, Tamil Nadu had said, “The projects undertaken by the first defendant (State of Karnataka) would severely affect the livelihood of lakhs of farmers in Krishnagiri, Dharmapuri, Thiruvannamalai, Villupuram and Cuddalore districts of Tamil Nadu as the flow of the river will be drastically reduced/ hampered besides affecting the drinking water needs of the plaintiff state.”
On November 14, 2019, the apex court had permitted Tamil Nadu to make an application to the Centre as per the provisions of the Inter-State River Dispute Act, 1956, and seek constitution of an interstate river water disputes tribunal.
Centre has failed to constitute tribunal
In 2019, the Karnataka government had announced that the construction of the dam was almost over. In 2019, the Tamil Nadu government had urged the Union government to constitute the tribunal at the earliest. As per the Inter-State Water Disputes Act, 1956, the Union government should constitute a tribunal within a year from the date of request made by Tamil Nadu, but the tribunal is yet to be constituted.
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