Opinion - Editorials   

No end to the wrangle

THE KARNATAKA GOVERNMENT has reason to be pleased with the outcome of the Cauvery River Authority meeting which it got convened in double quick time following the Supreme Court's interim order last week directing the State to release 1.25 tmcft of water daily to Tamil Nadu, pending decision by the CRA. Now Karnataka needs to spare only 9,000 cusecs a day (amounting to 0.8 tmcft) during September and October. For the very same reason, Tamil Nadu feels terribly aggrieved and "betrayed", with the Chief Minister, Jayalalithaa, even suspecting a political angle to the hurried manner in which the CRA was convened under "pressure" from the Karnataka Chief Minister, S. M. Krishna. The sense of urgency displayed by Karnataka in this regard stemmed from the fact that the apex court's order was to hold ground only until the CRA finalised the `distress sharing' arrangement — and that was expected sometime after September 15. If the Prime Minister, Atal Behari Vajpayee, as head of the CRA, responded promptly to Mr. Krishna's plea by convening the body at short notice, it was as it should be, given that the type of issues the Authority is expected to sort out can brook no delay. But, it is only that the CRA should be consistent and not selective in acting with expedition.

What exactly were the factors that went into Mr. Vajpayee's assessment while determining the quantum of water to be released for Tamil Nadu at 0.8 tmcft, as against 1.25 tmcft fixed by the apex court, are not clear. In the absence of agreed criteria for `deficit sharing', a task the CRA is still grappling with, there is bound to be an element of ad hocism, although to a substantial extent the Prime Minister should, presumably, have been guided by the positions taken by the member-States at the official monitoring committee. As a principle, pro rata sharing of the distress in a rainfall deficient year has much to commend itself on grounds of fairness and equity. The CRA's endeavour to work out a formula on that basis with the help of the Central Water Commission, halting and tentative though it has been, remains stalled largely due to some reservations of Karnataka on certain nitty-gritty aspects. When the Supreme Court observed that its directive on the release of 1.25 tmcft by way of immediate relief to Tamil Nadu would stand automatically superseded by the decision of the CRA on `distress sharing', it was not only recognising the Authority as the appropriate body to resolve the issue but also gently reminding it of its responsibility in that regard as the designated agency to oversee the implementation of the Tribunal's June 1991 interim order.

Where the CRA has singularly failed is in respect of making an earnest effort to bridge the gap between positions taken by the member-States, a task that necessarily called for a political will to display a spirit of accommodation and mutual appreciation of genuine difficulties — and that indeed is the rationale behind the present composition of the body, with the Prime Minister at the helm and the Chief Ministers of the four basin States as members. As it happened, however, its deliberations were confined to a mere reiteration by the disputant States of their rigid positions with no attempt being made for a reconciliation. There is nothing to suggest that the CRA's Sunday meeting has been any different. In fact, the not-so-conducive political environment in the wake of recent developments affecting Tamil Nadu and Karnataka — marked as it is by accusations and counter-accusations with personal overtones between the two Chief Ministers — and Ms. Jayalalithaa's suspicion about Karnataka's pressure on the Centre would seem to have cast their own shadows on its deliberations. With the aggrieved Tamil Nadu declaring its intention to take the CRA's decision to the apex court (which is hearing its petitions over some larger questions related to the enforcement of the Tribunal's interim order), the vexatious wrangle over `distress sharing' is all set to continue.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Opinion

News: Front Page | National | Southern States | Other States | International | Opinion | Business | Sport | Miscellaneous |
Advts: Classifieds | Employment | Obituary |

Stories in this Section

• No end to the wrangle
• Modi's sinister designs
• Remembering Sept. 11
• Crisis in the handloom sector
• The normalisation of America
• Bailing out UTI
• Why Thackeray?
• Dispute and mediation
• Rats as companions
• Unnumbered coaches

Copyright © 2002, The Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu