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Karnataka to seek review of SC order

By Our Special Correspondent

HUBLI SEPT. 3. The Karnataka Minister for Water Resources, H.K. Patil, has described as unfortunate the direction given by the Supreme Court to release 1.25 tmcft of water to Tamil Nadu on a daily basis starting from Wednesday, till the next meeting of the Cauvery River Authority (CRA).

He said the Government would consult legal experts to explore the avenues open to it to seek a review of the order passed by the Supreme Court.

Mr. Patil, who is on a tour of North Karnataka, returned to Bangalore to attend the emergency Cabinet meeting tomorrow.

Cabinet meeting

Our Bangalore Special Correspondent writes:

The Cabinet is meeting here in an emergency session in the light of the Supreme Court order.

This was stated here today by the Law Minister, D.B. Chandre Gowda, who, however, declined to say anything on the order.

A meeting of the floor leaders of all political parties had been convened after the Cabinet meeting, Mr. Chandre Gowda said.

The Janata Dal(U) leader and former Major Irrigation Minister, K.N. Nage Gowda, has urged the Prime Minister, A.B. Vajpayee, to convene a meeting of the Cavuery River Authority as the Supreme Court's order on releasing Cauvery water to Tamil Nadu was difficult to implement.

In a statement here, Mr. Nage Gowda said the Prime Minister had failed to convene meetings of the river authority when required and to take the right decisions.

He would be held responsible if any law and order problem arose in the State as a result of the Government implementing the Supreme Court order.

Mr. Nage Gowda alleged that the Prime Minister and the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister, Jayalalithaa, had hatched a "conspiracy."

The State's failure lay in not being able to expose that "conspiracy." The Centre had to explain on what basis the Solicitor-General told the court that the State could release 1.25 tmcft of Cauvery water to Tamil Nadu.

Picking holes in the Supreme Court order, Mr. Nage Gowda said the storage in the Cauvery Basin reservoirs in the State was only 44 tmcft, and not 70 tmcft as assumed by the court.

He also alleged that the court had bypassed the Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal and the river authority by stating that there was no distress facing the State.

The court had no jurisdiction in the matter going by Sections 6 and 6A of the Inter-State River Water Disputes Act, 1956.

Disturbances foreseen

The Janata Dal(S) leader and former Minister of State for Irrigation, H.N. Nanje Gowda, has said that the implementation of Tuesday's order might lead to a law and order problem.

In a statement, he questioned the right of the Supreme Court to adjudicate in an inter-State river water dispute.

Neither the Constitution nor the Inter-State River Water Disputes Act, 1956 vested the Supreme Court with the jurisdiction to adjudicate disputes regarding inter-State river waters, he said.

Mr. Nanje Gowda alleged that the court appeared to have "overstepped" its jurisdiction.

The Government would face insurmountable impediments in implementing the order, and the worst sufferers would be farmers in the Cauvery Basin of the State.

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