Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa on Thursday told the Legislative Assembly that she had ordered filing of an interlocutory petition in the Supreme Court seeking release of Cauvery water as per the final award of the Cauvery Water Tribunal. The petition has been necessitated as Karnataka had refused to release the water.
“The interlocutory petition will be filed in a couple of days. I have confidence that we will get appropriate orders from the apex court and will get our share of water as per the final award of the tribunal,” she said in a suo motu statement in the House.
Ms. Jayalalithaa said the combined storage of major reservoirs of Karnataka — Harangi Hemavathy, Krishnarajasagar and Kabini — was 114.575 tmcft and as on August 17, 2016, these reservoirs had 64.849 tmcft of water.
“Karnataka is releasing water from these reservoirs for its own irrigation. But in Mettur, the water level is only 27.560 tmcft,” she explained.
Irrigation period
As per the final award of the Cauvery Water Tribunal, the annual irrigation period is between June of a year and May of the next year.
“Since Karnataka failed to release water in June and July, the Chief Secretary, as per my direction, wrote a letter to the Karnataka government and the Centre on July 30,” she said.
Letter to Karnataka
In his letter, the Chief Secretary had urged the Karnataka government to release water to make up the shortfall between June 1 and July 27, 2016. “But neither the Karnataka government nor the Centre had responded to the letter,” she said.
The Chief Minister said even though the Cauvery Water Tribunal delivered its interim order in 1991 and final order on February 5, 2007, it was not published in the gazette of the Central government.
“It was published in the gazette on February 19, 2013, following a legal battle waged by my government in the Supreme Court. Tamil Nadu cannot get its share of water since the Cauvery Management Board and the Cauvery Water Regulatory Authority are not yet constituted. My government filed a petition in the apex court seeking a direction to constitute these bodies in 2013 and the case is still before the court,” she said.
Special Benches
Ms. Jayalalithaa said the Supreme Court had constituted Special Benches to hear long-pending cases including the Cauvery Water dispute.
“It came up for hearing on March 28, 2016 and the court ordered it for listing on June 19, 2016. Subsequently the case was adjourned to October 18 for further hearing,” she recalled.
