Cauvery water dispute will flow to Parliament

The six-year-old dispute about the interim award of Cauvery waters to Tamil Nadu will now shift from the Supreme Court to the Parliament.

This was made clear in the apex court when Attorney General Ashok Desai announced the Union government's decision to implement the award by framing a scheme under the Inter-state Water Disputes Act, 1956.

The Cauvery dispute tribunal had, on June 25, 1991, directed the Karnataka government to release 205, 000 million cubic feet of water annually to Tamil Nadu.

The proposed scheme will be placed before Parliament. Once approved, the government will gazette it under the Act making it obligatory for Karnataka to comply with the interim award.

The Union government's decision was brought about by the frank views which the five-judge Supreme Court bench had expressed earlier. The bench, headed by Chief Justice J S Verma, deferred the case till July 15. It had been hearing Tamil Nadu government's petition which sought the implementation of the interim award.

The proposed scheme is expected to be ready within the next eight weeks. It will be send first to the Tamil Nadu and Karnataka governments for their comments.

UNI