The Hindu : Tamil Nadu News : Karnataka assails Cauvery award

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Wednesday, Apr 25, 2007
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Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu

Karnataka assails Cauvery award

J. Venkatesan

Petition alleges gross, glaring lapses in award apportioning water

New Delhi: Karnataka has questioned in the Supreme Court the methodology adopted by the Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal in the apportionment of water to Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and the Union Territory of Puducherry.

In a special leave petition filed on Monday challenging the February 5 award, Karnataka said, "It has been gravely prejudiced by the gross and glaring lapses on the part of the Tribunal" in the allocation of water.

It said the Tribunal had overruled the submissions of Karnataka and held that the agreements of 1892 and 1924 entered into between the princely State of Mysore and Government of Madras were binding and these agreements gave protective rights to Tamil Nadu in the use of Cauvery water.

It said the two agreements were political agreements and not enforceable in a Tribunal. Moreover these agreements had lapsed after 1947.

Volte face

Karnataka maintained that the Tribunal had erroneously adopted the investigative approach (contrary to its stand that only adversarial approach be adopted).

Further the Tribunal ought to have obtained the opinion of independent experts rather than making a complete volte face. The Tribunal should have held that Tamil Nadu had failed to provide any evidence on crop water requirement in spite of the opportunity being given to establish its case of being prejudicially affected by Karnataka's project.

Referring to the apportionment of 270 tmcft of water to Karnataka, it said that Tamil Nadu did not question on merits the water requirement of 465 tmcft of water claimed by Karnataka, based on the project reports for utilisation under various schemes.

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