The Hindu : Front Page : State not satisfied with Cauvery award

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Feb 06, 2007
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State not satisfied with Cauvery award

Staff Reporter

N.K. Premachandran says the State will seek legal opinion before taking a decision.

ALAPPUZHA: Chief Minister V. S. Achuthanandan and Water Resources Minister N. K. Premachandran said here on Monday that the State was not satisfied with the final order delivered by the Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal awarding 30 tmcft of water to the State.

Talking to reporters at separate functions in the district, they said the State would appeal against the order after seeking expert legal opinion.

Mr. Achuthanandan said Kerala had sought at least 99.8 tmc ft of water from the Cauvery.

Mr. Premachandran said he had discussed the issue with the Chief Minister and was assessing the situation. The future course of action would be decided after studying the order, he said.

The Minister said three tributaries of the Cauvery — the Kabani, the Pambar and the Bhavani — originated from the State and contributed 147 tmcft water to the Cauvery. The Government's stand was that the State should get a proportionate share of the waters. Kerala should get at least 99.8 tmcft of the Cauvery waters. However, the tribunal had conceded only less than one-third of the State's demand, Mr. Premachandran said.

The Minister said the State had two options before it. "We can file a review petition before the tribunal within three months or go in appeal against the award before the Supreme Court." The course of action would be decided after deliberations with legal experts, he said.

Mr. Premachandran said the assessment committee of the tribunal had recommended that Kerala was eligible to get 33.4 tmcft of water from the Cauvery. Prior to that, a fact-finding committee on sharing the Cauvery waters appointed by the Union Government in 1975 had recommended that Kerala be provided 35 tmcft of water. The present award was less than both recommendations, the Minister said.

Kerala had submitted two inter-river basin water transfer projects for utilising the State's share of the Cauvery waters. It was expected that a part of the State's share could be utilised for drinking water supply projects.

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