The Hindu : National : Cauvery Monitoring Committee meets today

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Wednesday, Sep 22, 2004

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Cauvery Monitoring Committee meets today

By Gargi Parsai

NEW DELHI, SEPT. 21. The official-level Cauvery Monitoring Committee (CMC) will meet here tomorrow against the backdrop of the one of the basin States — Karnataka — questioning the jurisdiction of the Committee to formulate a "formula" for sharing distress between the States concerned in times of scanty rainfall in the region.

At the CMC meeting last September, Karnataka had rejected a "distress sharing formula" proposed by the Centre, while the other basin States, Tamil Nadu, Pondicherry and Kerala, accepted it. Since then, the Cauvery River Authority (CRA), chaired by the Prime Minister, has not met to take a view on this controversial subject.

CMC formula

Authoritative sources in the Union Water Resources Ministry said the Ministry had upheld the validity of the CRA to adopt a formula worked out by the CMC on the ground that the CRA had to ensure the release of the Cauvery waters to Tamil Nadu by Karnataka. However, by all accounts, the issue is likely to snowball into a major legal battle.

Tribunal sought

Karnataka has also sought the constitution of another tribunal to adjudicate on the sharing of the Cauvery waters among the basin States.

Tamil Nadu opposes the demand and has sought a meeting of the CRA of which the Chief Ministers of the basin States are the members. In its interim order of June 1991, the Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal asked Karnataka to release 205 thousand million cubic feet (tmcft) of water to Tamil Nadu at Mettur, in a water year in prescribed monthly releases.

The tribunal is in the final stages of its hearing.

Meeting's agenda

Tomorrow's meeting, to be chaired by the Water Resources Secretary, V.K. Duggal, will review the storage position in the four reservoirs in Karnataka and in the Mettur dam in Tamil Nadu.

It will also consider the area irrigated in Karnataka by the Cauvery and the water flows at the Biligundulu gauge and at the Mettur reservoir.

Official sources said the storage in the Karnataka reservoirs till Monday was about 72 tmcft and in Mettur, about 47 tmcft.

The cumulative shortfall in water releases since June from Karnataka to Tamil Nadu at Mettur since June is about 33 tmcft.

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