Reiterating its opposition over the Centre’s proposal to constitute a Permanent Water Disputes Tribunal (PWDT) to adjudicate inter-State water disputes, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami on Wednesday urged the Centre not to process or proceed further on the Bill introduced in the Lok Sabha in this regard.
The Tamil Nadu government firmly believed that the provisions of the Inter-State River Water Disputes Act, 1956 as amended up to 2002, “would suffice” to adjudicate the Inter-State River Water Disputes amongst the States and there was “no need” to make amendments to the provisions of the Act, Mr. Palaniswami contended in his letter to Union Water Resources Minister Nitin Gadkari.
“Further, the Government of Tamil Nadu conveys its decision that the functioning of the existing Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal should not be hampered in the pretext of transfer of the pending applications to the proposed constitution of the Inter-State River Water Disputes Tribunal,” the Chief Minister insisted.
Mr. Palaniswami also went on to point out various provisions of the existing Act and argued that each and every water dispute amongst the States was “unique in character” and the water disputes that would arise would be “complex in their mode unlike the usual civil and criminal cases normally dealt with by the courts”.
While the existing Act didn’t have a fixed tenure for the Tribunal’s Chairman and members, the proposed legislation prescribed an upper age limit. In the Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal, the members hearing the case since 1991 are over 70 years old. If the Bill was enacted, the two members would cease to hold office, the Chief Minister pointed out.
The CWDT was constituted based on the judgment of the Supreme Court in 1990 and the transfer of the pending applications to the newly proposed tribunal shall not be done without the leave of the apex court. Also, following the verdict of the CWDT in 2007 and its notification, applications have been filed and they were pending before the tribunal.
As for Clause 9A of the draft bill, which relates to maintenance of data bank and information, the Tamil Nadu government had in 2001 informed the Centre that the data it had need not be verified by the Centre and the amendment would not be necessary and there was no change in the State government’s stand.
