The Centre on Monday placed a draft scheme on sharing of Cauvery water between Karnataka and Tamil Nadu before the Supreme Court, reported PTI. The court said it would take a decision on the scheme on May 16.
“We need to examine whether the said scheme is in consonance with our judgement,” said the bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justices AM Khanwilkar and DY Chandrachud.
On May 8, the Supreme Court asked the secretary of the Union Water Resources Ministry to appear before it on May 14 with a draft scheme on the Cauvery water management board. The bench had said that it was “sheer contempt” of the court’s verdict that the Centre had not yet drafted the scheme. In February, the court had asked the Centre to set up a Cauvery Water Management Board by March 29, and later extended the deadline to May 3.
The Centre told the Supreme Court on May 3 that it had failed to meet the deadline for framing the draft of the Cauvery water-sharing scheme because Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the other ministers were busy with preparations for the May 12 Assembly elections in Karnataka.
The Cauvery water sharing dispute has been going on for 22 years now. In February, the Supreme Court directed Karnataka to release 177.25 tmcft of Cauvery water per year to Tamil Nadu. This is a reduction from 192 tmcft that the Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal had allotted Tamil Nadu in 2007. Both Tamil Nadu and Karnataka had moved the Supreme Court against the ruling.
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