Farmers of the Cauvery delta districts of Thanjavur and Tiruvarur have appealed to the new government to be formed at the Centre to form the Cauvery Management Board and Water Regulation Committees to implement the final award of the Cauvery River Water Disputes Tribunal.
“We hope that the Narendra Modi government will do justice to Tamil Nadu,” said S. Ranganathan, secretary of the Cauvery Delta Farmers Welfare Association.
Cauvery was one of the oldest river water disputes in the country, and the unique feature was that sharing of distress as the Cauvery was a deficit river, Mr. Ranganathan said. “When there is surplus, there is no problem. Problem crops up only when there is a deficit. The Tribunal suggested ways of sharing distress,” he said.
He said formation of the Cauvery Management Board was of utmost importance. It was unfortunate that it had not been formed for the past seven years though the final award was delivered in 2007.
In the final award, the Tribunal said: “A Cauvery Management Board on the lines of the Bakra-Beas Board should be formed. In our opinion, the necessity of setting up a suitable mechanism [a management board] is of utmost importance. Furthermore, such a mechanism should be adequately empowered. This should have powers to implement the Tribunbal’s decision. Otherwise, we [the Tribunal] are afraid that our decision would remain on paper.”
“Though the Tribunal has made it clear in its final award, the Board has not yet been formed. Unlike the Congress-led government [UPA-II] which did not take steps to form the Board, we hope the Modi government will address this issue on a priority basis,” Mr. Ranganathan said.
“Formation of such a Board will be a prelude to nationalisation of rivers,” he said.
P. Maniarasan, convener of the Cauvery Urimai Meetpu Kuzhu, said the Cauvery Management Board should be formed by the new government before June 7 so that water could be released from the Mettur dam on the traditional date of June 12 for the cultivation of Kuruvai crop. “If the government failed to heed to our appeal, we would launch an agitation,” Mr. Maniarasan said.
