While the issue has triggered several protests in Tamil Nadu against the Centre, the reaction has been more guarded in Karnataka.
Bengaluru: The Centre’s delay in formulating a scheme to implement the Supreme Court’s February order on the distribution of Cauvery waters between Karnataka and Tamil Nadu has evoked divergent reactions in the two states.
While the issue has triggered several protests in Tamil Nadu against the Centre, including a day-long hunger strike by the ruling AIADMK, a demonstration by the film fraternity and a contempt petition against the union government for the delay, the reaction has been more guarded in Karnataka.
The order
In its February order, the Supreme Court had shorn 14.75 TMC (thousand million cubic feet) off Tamil Nadu’s share of Cauvery water in Karnataka’s favour, prioritising the latter’s need for drinking water. It compensated Tamil Nadu by allowing it to extract 10 TMC of its available groundwater, estimated at 20 TMC. It also asked the Centre to frame, by 31 March, a scheme to implement its order. The deadline has now been extended to 3 May, but not before the court rapped the government for the delay.
In this scheme lies the main divergence. While Tamil Nadu says the scheme in question only refers to the setting up of a Cauvery management board and regulation committee, Karnataka is against any such board and believes the SC had left the contours of the scheme to the Centre.
‘Guarded’ Karnataka
In poll-bound Karnataka, the state’s Congress government said the ball was now in the central government’s court to finalise a scheme that suited all stakeholders. Congress leader V.S. Ugrappa said, “Whatever we say at this time will be contempt. Ultimately, right or wrong, the judgment of the SC amounts to a decree. The government of India needs to take a decision not to constitute the board.”
The JD(S), whose political base lies in the Cauvery basin, has said that it would accept the Supreme Court order, adding that an additional 14.75 TMC of water for Tamil Nadu was not a big issue. It has, however, urged care in the formulation of the scheme. Former Prime Minister and party chief H.D. Deve Gowda emphasised that a central committee should first be formed under the Prime Minister, with the union water resources minister and representatives of the river basin states as members, to study local conditions.
“Let the agency monitor the monsoon and crop pattern for five years and understand how it works and then, I think, it would be advisable to form the Cauvery management board,” he said. “The scheme that I am suggesting will help track the problems faced in the basin,” he added.
The BJP will wait for the Centre’s proposal before reacting, former chief minister Jagdish Shettar said. “The Centre has to come up with a scheme. We will see how it goes,” he added. However, the party has maintained that a Cauvery management board would harm everyone’s interest.
One thing is clear, that the parties are treading extremely cautiously on the emotive matter with repercussions for their survival in the state.
Timing is everything
There is consensus in Karnataka that any decision on the matter should not be taken now, when the state faces elections. The Centre had tried to delay the formulation of the scheme beyond the election date, but the bid was thwarted by the Supreme Court.
It is believed any decision now could affect the electoral prospects of candidates. “If the decision for the board is made now, it could have repercussions,” said Congress leader Ugrappa.
Gowda said a matter that affected the “lives of people” should not be mixed with elections.