Search the Internet          Tips

Karnataka withdraws its plea against Andhra on Krishna waters

Karnataka told the court that it would approach the Centre for constitution of an Inter-State Water Dispute Tribunal.

The five-judge constitution bench headed by Justice G B Pattanaik and comprising Justice V N Khare, Justice Y K Sabharwal, Justice S N Variava and Justice Ashok Bhan, pointed out that the apex court, in its 1998 order, had given liberty to the states to approach the Centre for constitution of an inter-state water disputes tribunal, but Karnataka had not done so till date.

Appearing for the state, senior advocate Fali Nariman argued that the Bachawat Tribunal Award had distributed 2060 TMCft of water between Maharashtra, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh, but had left out from its purview a surplus of around 330 TMCft of water.

The Tribunal as well as the Supreme Court had held that though Andhra Pradesh, as a lower riparian state, could use the surplus water naturally flowing down the river, it would not acquire any permanent right over it, he said.

In violation of the orders, Andhra Pradesh was constructing these two big projects to utilise the surplus waters, he said.

More reports on Karnataka

Tell us what you think of this report