Obey CRA order, SC tells Karnataka

Sep 29, 2012 |

New Delhi

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The Supreme Court on Friday slammed the Karnataka government for failing to comply with the directive of the Cauvery River Authority (CRA), headed by the Prime Minister, to release 9,000 cusecs of water every day to Tamil Nadu.

A bench of justices, D.K. Jain and Madan Lokur, criticised Karnataka for not respecting the decision taken by the country’s Prime Minister and warned the state that if it failed to comply with the CRA directive, the court will take stern action against it.

“This is the order passed by the CRA, headed by the Prime Minister, and you don’t want to comply with it. We are very sorry for the kind of respect you have for the highest authority. You comply with the directive or we will pass (appropriate) order,” the bench told the counsel appearing for the Karnataka government. The apex court then directed the state to release 9,000 cusecs of water daily, under the distress sharing formula, from September 20 to October 15 and sought its reply within a week.

Earlier, senior counsel C.S. Vaidyanathan, appearing for Tamil Nadu, urged the apex court to direct the Union government under Article 355 of the Constitution to protect the state’s interest. He said the court may direct deployment of the Army in Karnataka to ensure compliance of the CRA order.

Karnataka, on September 10, had agreed to release 10,000 cusecs of water from Cauvery to Tamil Nadu till September 20 as a goodwill gesture. The court was hearing an application by Tamil Nadu to direct Karnataka to release 2 TMC of water.

During the last hearing, the apex court had refused to pass any order on Tamil Nadu’s plea in response to Karnataka’s gesture and had hoped that the CRA would be able to find an “amicable” solution to the river water row in its September 19 meeting. The bench, however, had clarified that it was only an interim arrangement till September 20 and the state governments can take appropriate steps if no solution of the problem comes out of the CRA meeting.

The CRA meeting of September 19 had failed to produce a solution as both Karnataka and TN had rejected the PM’s award of 9,000 cusecs of water to save standing crops in the delta region.
The CRA, headed by the PM, comprises of CMs of Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Puducherry and Kerala.

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