Cauvery dispute: SC pulls up Karnataka govt, tells it to give Tamil Nadu 4 tmcft water or 'face consequences'

The Supreme Court pulled up the Karnataka government on Thursday in the Cauvery river dispute and told it to give four tmcft (thousand million cubic feet) of water to Tamil Nadu, according to media reports. [caption id=“attachment_4439309” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Representational image. AP[/caption] The apex court said Karnataka must release water in April-May and warned the state government of “consequences” if it did not comply with the order, News18 reported. It said that even if the Centre has not framed the scheme, Karnataka, under the Cauvery Water Dispute Tribunal award, was obliged to make monthly releases to Tamil Nadu. ANI reported that Attorney General KK Venugopal submitted to the Supreme Court that the Cauvery Management Board draft has to be tabled before the Union Cabinet, and that the draft isn’t approved yet because the prime minister is in Karnataka currently, campaigning for the upcoming Assembly election in the state. Before that the prime minister was abroad (in China)." The Centre’s submission was countered strongly by senior counsel Shekhar Naphade, appearing for Tamil Nadu, who said: “Sorry to say, the Central government is politicizing the issue. They are worried about their electoral fate in Karnataka. Election in Karnataka is on 12 May and somehow they don’t want to do it till then. We have enough of it. It is brazen partisanship of the Union of India. It is the end of co-operative federalism.” The apex court then directed the Centre to file an affidavit in the matter and scheduled the next hearing for 8 May. In April, the Supreme Court asked the Centre to formulate and file the draft Cauvery management scheme before it by 3 May, and directed the authorities of Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and other stakeholders to ensure peace in the meantime. A bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra said it had considered the award of Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal (CWDT) while deciding the water share of Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Kerala and Puducherry in its judgment. The bench, also comprising Justice AM Khanwilkar and Justice DY Chandrachud, said that its judgment has to be complied with all the stakeholders. The court said the authorities are required to ensure peace till it peruses the draft scheme and finalises it for proper distribution of Cauvery water. The apex court, in its verdict, had asked the Centre to formulate a scheme to ensure compliance of its 465-page judgment on the decades-old Cauvery dispute. It had modified the Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal (CWDT) award of 2007 and made it clear that it will not be extending time for this on any ground. The top court had on 16 February raised the 270 tmcft share of Cauvery water for Karnataka by 14.75 tmcft and reduced Tamil Nadu’s share, while compensating it by allowing extraction of 10 tmcft groundwater from the river basin, saying the issue of drinking water has to be placed on a “higher pedestal”. With the apex court’s verdict, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Kerala and the Union Territory of Puducherry would annually be entitled to 404.25 tmcft, 284.75 tmcft, 30 tmcft and 7 tmcft of Cauvery water respectively out of the total of 740 tmcft. With inputs from agencies