The Hindu : Endless bickering

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Sep 12, 2002

Opinion

Opinion - Letters to the Editor

Endless bickering

Sir, — Your Editorial "No end to the wrangle" (Sept. 10) has rightly said that the crux of the problem — sharing of waters in distress years — has not been addressed either by the Monitoring Committee or the CRA. The Supreme Court's order that a distress formula be arrived at by the CRA has been totally ignored. How was the present quantum determined for September and October arbitrarily while nobody knows what is going to be the rainfall in the catchment areas during this period? It has become an annual ritual to create a surcharged atmosphere particularly in Karnataka and Tamil Nadu, giving room to miscreants to damage public property and create panic in the minds of ethnic minorities. It is time that an independent national river water commission/authority is set up to implement all inter-State dispute awards.

R. Venkataramani,
Chennai

Sir, — The ad hoc quantum fixed by the Supreme Court as interim solution would have definitely been based on the minimum requirement of Tamil Nadu as well as the affordability of Karnataka. So, there is no rationale behind the CRA's decision in awarding something less than what was fixed as interim award by the court. It appears that the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister's absence was capitalised on by the CRA.

R.S. Raghavan,
Bangalore

Sir, — The relationship between water and land, by way of osmosis and diffusion, is natural and virtually matters in the growth of crop and its yield. The farmers of both sides need to be taught and trained in this. It eliminates the apprehensions on the part of the upper riparian farmers to hang on to the reservoirs to retain as high a level as possible "to be on the safer side", and an unnatural optimism among the lower basin ones to sow the seeds, unmindful of the consequences.

R.K. Divakara,
Bangalore

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