NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Thursday refused to interfere with the order of the Cauvery Water Management Authority (CWMA) and the CWRC directing the Karnataka government to release 5,000 cusecs of water per day to Tamil Nadu for 15 days.
The Cauvery Water Regulation Committee (CWRC) in its September 12 order, which was upheld by CWMA, directed Karnataka to release 5,000 cusecs (cubic foot per second) of water every day for the next 15 days to Tamil Nadu.
A bench of Justices BR Gavai, PS Narasimha and Prashant Kumar Mishra said it was not inclined to entertain Tamil Nadu’s plea challenging the CWMA decision on the ground that it was facing a drought-like situation due to rain deficit.
The bench noted that bodies like CWMA and CWRC, which have experts from the India Meteorological Department (IMD), and those on agriculture and water resource management, have considered all relevant aspects like drought, deficit rainfall, water level in the river and only then passed the order.
“We are therefore of the considered view that the factors which have been taken into consideration by both the authorities cannot be said to be irrelevant or extraneous. In that view, we are not inclined to interfere with the orders,” the bench said.
It noted the two authorities are meeting every 15 days to take stock of the distress faced by both the states.
Senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi, appearing for Tamil Nadu, submitted that the two authorities, despite having acknowledged there was deficient rainfall since August and the state was eligible for of 7,200 cusecs of water, reduced the volume to 5,000 cusecs a day.
He added Tamil Nadu has five lakh acres of standing crop and is facing a drinking water problem for which more water is needed.
“If the drought-like condition was taken into account and the authority calculated it to be 7,200 cusecs per day, then there was no occasion to further bring it down to 5,000 cusecs per day,” he submitted.
Senior advocate Shyam Divan, appearing for Karnataka, said the upper riparian state was also facing drought-like conditions, and the release of 5,000 cusecs of water ordered by the authorities is against the “interest of the state”. He insisted it should be further reduced to 3,000 cusecs per day.
He said Karnataka uses Cauvery water for drinking as well as irrigation purposes while Tamil Nadu utilises it only for irrigation.
“We are facing a drinking water crisis, especially in urban areas including in Bengaluru,” he said.
On August 25, the top court had refused to pass any order on the Tamil Nadu government’s plea seeking release of 24,000 cusecs of Cauvery water daily by Karnataka for irrigating the standing crops.
The apex court had sought a report from the CWMA on the amount of water released by Karnataka. Rainfall has been 25 per cent lower and water inflow into Karnataka’s four reservoirs 42.5 per cent lesser, an affidavit filed by the upper riparian said.