Southern States - Tamil Nadu

'Tribunal alone can evolve formula'
By T. Ramakrishnan

CHENNAI, FEB. 14. Tamil Nadu has expressed its concurrence with the Central Water Commission draft guidelines on distress sharing of Cauvery water, even as the State continues to maintain that it is the Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal which can work out any such formula.

Responding to reports that the Government had not given its consent to the Commission's formula, a senior official says ``we are not avoiding the CWC or any central body. We have only explained the legal position''.

``There is no change in our position on the distress-sharing formula. Our stand is nothing but what the tribunal directive said. In its orders of April 1992 and December 1995, the Tribunal categorically stated that in case of undue hardship, any party to the dispute could approach it for relief but should not unilaterally determine any formula for reducing its obligation.''

What the Government last month communicated to the Central authorities was that the State was agreeable to the draft guidelines on distress sharing, without prejudice to its stance. It did suggest certain modifications, which the official calls `marginal'. This was what the State reiterated at the recent meeting of the Cauvery River Authority Monitoring Committee.

Tamil Nadu's argument against the Authority or the committee framing the distress-sharing formula was based on the ground that the CRA and the MC were formed only to give effect to the implementation of the tribunal's orders. ``So, we want them only to perform the functions, defined in the Union Water Resources Ministry's notification of August 1998''.

Asked whether it was wrong on the part of the CWC to come up with its formula, he said ``it is not a question of right or wrong. What we say is: please carry out the Tribunal's directions. What do the orders say? Any State, when it feels aggrieved, can go to the Tribunal for appropriate orders. This is why we oppose any proposal of the Monitoring Committee or Authority preparing a formula''. Moreover, the panel of assessors is available only with the Tribunal.

The State also wonders how Karnataka can keep on using Biligundlu as the reference point for calculation of inflows into Tamil Nadu, even though the Tribunal has repeatedly dismissed it and held that it is the flow at Mettur which matters.

As on date, going by Tamil Nadu records, the cumulative shortfall in realisation of Cauvery water at Mettur is 42.8 tmcft. From June 1 to date, the State should have received around 197 tmcft, whereas it got about 154 tmcft.

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