The Hindu : `No new project in the basin'

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Aug 07, 2003

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National

`No new project in the basin'

By J. Venkatesan

NEW DELHI Aug. 6. Karnataka has refuted Tamil Nadu's charge before the Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal that it had undertaken the Rs. 40-crore Nugu lift irrigation project in Kabini to utilise Tamil Nadu's share of water.

Responding to the Tribunal's notice on Tamil Nadu's application to restrain Karnataka from proceeding with the project, Karnataka said that no new works had been taken up by the Government or any of its agencies.

Regarding Nugu lift irrigation, Karnataka said it was planned to lift water from the Kabini river and adjust the withdrawals against Kabini project utilisation of 65 tmcft (thousand million cubic feet), if necessary to augment supplies to the suffering ayacut of 7,000 acres under the existing project.

Further, Karnataka asserted that Tamil Nadu had received more than its equitable share in the Cauvery waters.

Elaborating, it said Tamil Nadu's share in the Cauvery basin at Mettur reservoir could be fully realised if Karnataka and Kerala ensured about 80 tmcft of water annually to raise the rain-fed Samba rice crop beginning from October and ending in March.

Karnataka also maintained that it had not violated the Tribunal's interim orders. The agreements of 1892 and 1924, promising supplies to Tamil Nadu, were void and were not enforceable. In any case, they were entered into under the "corrupting influence" of British paramountcy and outside the purview of the Inter-State Water Disputes Act.

Tamil Nadu had not made out any new ground to restrain Karnataka from going ahead with the works of "on-going" projects in the Cauvery basin and hence the application should be dismissed, Karnataka said.

In its application, Tamil Nadu had alleged that Karnataka's proposal was to pump 28 tmcft of water during the four monsoon months from Kabini river even as it built a reservoir to prevent surpluses in Kabini dam and deny waters to Tamil Nadu.

It noted with concern that such proposed pumping of water would deny flows from Kabini to Mettur.

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