Date:08/04/2003 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2003/04/08/stories/2003040802070400.htm

Southern States - Karnataka

Press for Krishna tribunal, Govt. urged

By Our Special Correspondent

Bangalore April 7. K.N.Nage Gowda, former minister and senior leader of the All India Janata Dal, said today that the State Government should bring pressure on the Centre to constitute a tribunal to allocate surplus Krishna waters among the riparian States.

He told presspersons here that even three years after the deadline for implementing Scheme "A" of the Bachawat Award lapsed and the Supreme Court suggesting the constitution of a tribunal, the Centre had not taken any step in that direction. By neglecting the issue, the Centre had helped Andhra Pradesh go ahead with the construction of five unauthorised irrigation projects.

Mr. Nage Gowda said the State Government had written to the Centre five months ago urging it to constitute the tribunal at the earliest. As per the amendment to the Inter-State River Water Disputes Act, a tribunal had to be constituted whenever two States failed to agree on sharing river water. The Centre should act within a year on receiving the request for a tribunal and the tribunal should announce its award within three years. With Karnataka having written to the Centre five months ago, it had to now press for the constitution of the tribunal as per clause three of the River Water Disputes Act.

The former minister, who held the Major Irrigation portfolio in the J.H.Patel Ministry, said the State should press for the appointment of at least two persons from the State to serve on the tribunal as assessors, to quantify the available surplus waters in the Krishna. While the original estimation of the surplus waters was about 600 tmcft., the revised estimates put it at 800 tmcft. As per the Bachawat Award, Karnataka had been allocated 50 per cent of the surplus waters, while Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh were allocated 25 per cent each.

The State had filed an original suit in the apex court in 1997 seeking, among other things, to raise the height of the Alamatti Dam to 524 metres, an appropriate share in the surplus waters in the Krishna, and to prevent Andhra Pradesh from going ahead with five irrigation projects. The Supreme Court, in its judgment in April 2000, restricted the height of the Alamatti Dam to 519.6 metres, favoured a tribunal to allocate the surplus waters, and also directed that the construction of irrigation projects should not be undertaken without the permission of the Centre.

Mr. Nage Gowda said injustice had been done to the State in the Krishna water allocation. The Centre had neither prevented Andhra Pradesh from utilising the surplus waters nor had it stalled unauthorised projects. Karnataka had sought to utilise surplus waters to irrigate the parched areas in Bellary, Chitradurga, Kolar, Haveri, and Shimoga districts.

He said the Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal was yet to give its final award. The final award was important since it was expected to contain a distress sharing formula. The CWDT held 300 sittings so far and, according to reports, the award was expected shortly.

Mr. Nage Gowda urged the State Government to direct the sugar factories in the State to pay the dues to sugarcane growers. The dues were around Rs. 450 crore and some of the factories had been sold even before the settlement of the dues to growers. Merger talks: Referring to the proposed merger of the two Janata Dal parties, Mr. Nage Gowda said the merger talks should begin only after the Janata Dal (Secular) withdrew its complaint to the Election Commission pertaining to the registration of the All India Janata Dal. Further, the merger should be finalised only after the return of the former chief minister, Ramakrishna Hegde, who had been admitted to a hospital in the United Kingdom.

He said the Suttur Math swamiji, who had taken the initiative on the merger, should bear in mind that the president of the new party should enjoy the confidence of all sections. Otherwise, the merger would become a futile exercise.

Mr. Nage Gowda said it was ironical that the former prime minister, H.D.Deve Gowda, who had insisted on the JD(U) pulling out of the NDA and breaking its links with the BJP before the merger, had now roped in M.Rajasekhara Murthy to work for the merger even though Mr. Murthy was a BJP MP. It would be better if Mr. Murthy resigned from the BJP before taking up such an assignment, he added.