Cauvery verdict: Supreme Court asks centre to prepare draft scheme by 3 May
09 Apr 2018
1
The Supreme Court has pulled up the central government for failure to draw up a scheme to implement its judgement on the distribution of the Cauvery water among states of Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Kerala and Puducherry and directed it to file a draft scheme by next month.
The apex court also directed the authorities of Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and other stakeholders to ensure peace in the meantime.
A Bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra today said it had considered the award of Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal (CWDT) while deciding the water share of Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Kerala and Puducherry in its judgment.
The Bench, also comprising Justices A M Khanwilkar and D Y Chandrachud, said that its judgment has to be complied with all the stakeholders and that the authorities must ensure peace it finalises the draft scheme for proper distribution of Cauvery water.
The Supreme Court, in its verdict, had modified the Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal (CWDT) award of 2007 and raised the share of Karnataka in Cauvery waters and had asked the centre to formulate a scheme to ensure compliance of its 465-page judgment.
The 16 February judgement raised the 270 tmcft share of Cauvery water for Karnataka by 14.75 tmcft considering the drinking water requirements of Bangalore and reduced Tamil Nadu’s share by an equal quantity. However, the court had allowed Tamil Nadu to extract 10 tmcft of groundwater from the river basin.
With the apex court’s verdict, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Kerala and Union Territory of Puducherry would be annually entitled to 404.25 tmcft, 284.75 tmcft, 30 tmcft and 7 tmcft of Cauvery water, respectively out of the total of 740 tmcft.
