Date:02/11/2002 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2002/11/02/stories/2002110205070100.htm

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SC specifies quantum of Cauvery water release to T.N.

By J. Venkatesan

NEW DELHI Nov. 1. Even as the Supreme Court deferred its decision on the two contempt petitions filed against the Karnataka Chief Minister, S.M. Krishna, it directed Karnataka to release 9,000 cusecs of water daily to Mettur in Tamil Nadu from today till November 6 and 6,000 cusecs from November 7 to 15, the next date of hearing of the case.

A three-Judge Bench, comprising the Chief Justice B.N. Kirpal, Justice Y.K. Sabharwal and Justice Arijit Pasayat, passed this order considering the submission made on behalf of the State that from October 28 till this morning, it had released about 5.1 tmcft (thousand million cubic feet) of water to Mettur, an average of 10,000 cusecs a day, and that the northeast monsoon had set in in Tamil Nadu.

`CRA should meet'

The Bench also requested the Cauvery River Authority (CRA) headed by the Prime Minister to take an early decision on Karnataka's request seeking a review of the September 8 order of the CRA. The court's interim formula would be subject to any order or modification or decision to be taken by the CRA on such representation of Karnataka. The court also made it clear that any decision taken by the CRA would ipso facto override the court orders as regards the release of water.

The Bench also said that while deciding the quantum of water to be released, the CRA would keep in mind the fact that Karnataka did not release sufficient water as directed by this court and the CRA for the months of September-October. Further, "the CRA would take into consideration the deficiency with regard to release of water on account of non-compliance of our order and the CRA by Karnataka'', it said.

The Solicitor-General, Harish Salve, brought to the court's notice that the Pondicherry Chief Minister had submitted a memorandum to the Prime Minister stating that Tamil Nadu had not released water to the Union Territory. In response, counsel for Tamil Nadu, K.K. Venugopal, said the State would release water to Pondicherry in accordance with the CRA order and the Bench recorded this and asked Tamil Nadu to release pro-rata water to Pondicherry.

When the case was taken up, counsel for Karnataka said the State had released 10,000 cusecs of water everyday from October 28. When the Bench wanted to know how the State would make good the shortfall, Mr. Nariman said that Tamil Nadu was getting good rain in the last three days and any release at this stage would go waste. Mr. Venugopal said there was a shortfall of 23.18 tmcft from Karnataka due to the non-compliance of the earlier orders and it should make good the shortfall. The present storage in Mettur was about 20 tmcft and Tamil Nadu needed 95 tmcft till October-end for samba crop.