Hopes of finding a solution at the farmers' level for the century-old row over sharing of Cauvery waters among the riparian States have brighten up with Cauvery Family, an association of farmers from the Cauvery basin area of Karnataka and Tamil Nadu, expressing confidence that it will be able to finalise a water-sharing model by June.
The members of the Cauvery Family, who held their 13th meeting in Bangalore on Friday, decided to finalise the water-sharing model at their next meeting to be held in Tamil Nadu in June. The Cauvery Family is an initiative by farmers across the two States with the help of a few academicians to facilitate mutual understanding between Cauvery basin area farmers of both the States to create a conducive environment for finding an appropriate solution to the water-sharing row.
“Earlier we examined six water-sharing models and selected three among them. Now we have to finalise one model from among the three which will be done in June,” Cauvery Family convenor S. Janakarajan told presspersons after the brainstorming session of farmers.
“As soon as the water-sharing model is finalised, we will approach the Prime Minister and the Chief Ministers of both the States with the solution. We will appeal to them to apply the model to resolve the water-sharing row and not to continue the inter-State tussle,” he said.
He said the Friday's meeting of the Cauvery Family had expressed concern over the delay in finding a legal remedy to the water-sharing row. Pointing out that the Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal's final award issued in 2007 was mired in litigation as farmers of both the States had filed special leave petitions before the Supreme Court, he said the farmers were of the view that: “they have been shunted from dark tunnel to darker tunnel” as the solution is still not in sight.
Now the Cauvery Family was making efforts to find a “track-II” solution which is outside that of judicial forums, he said.
He said across the border visits of farmers from both the States had helped in removing some misconceptions. He pointed out that Karnataka farmers, who were earlier under the impression that their Tamil Nadu counterparts were growing three crops of paddy a year, had now understood that it was a wrong notion. Similarly Tamil Nadu farmers, who used to suspect that Karnataka is storing excess Cauvery water in its reservoirs, were convinced that Karnataka cannot store excess water due to its geographical elevation.
President of Cauvery Delta Farmers' Association S. Ranganathan, Federation of Farmers' Associations president Dhanpal, All India Banana Growners' Association vice-president Ajeethan and farmers' leader Sathyanaarayana represented Tamil Nadu at Friday's meeting. Karnataka Rajya Raitha Sangha working president Kodihally Chandrashekhar, vice-president K.C. Basavaraj and farmers' leaders Kurubur Shantakumar and Sunanda Jayaram took part on Karnataka's behalf.
Former journalist-turned activist V. Ganapathy was present.
