K’taka ordered to share water with TN

The Supreme Court on Friday slammed the BJP-ruled Karnataka government for showing little respect to the direction passed by the prime minister-led Cauvery River Authority’s (CRA) asking it to release 9,000 cusec water to the neighbouring Jayalalithaa government in Tamil Nadu.

“This is the order passed by the CRA, headed by the prime minister. You (Karnataka) don’t want to comply with it? We are very sorry for the kind of respect you have for the highest authority (PM)’’, said a bench of justices DK Jain and Madan Lokur expressing its anguish during the hearing of a petition filed by AIADMK-ruled Tamil Nadu seeking implementation of the CRA directive.

In case its direction to release the river under the distress sharing formula is not implemented, the bench warned, it will pass an appropriate order.

As the bench asked Karnataka to file an affidavit reporting compliance of the direction passed by the CRA, TN’s counsel CS Vaidyanathan urged the court that the Union government be asked to invoke protect Article 355 of the Constitution for protecting the interests of farmers in TN. He also sought deployment of army in Karnataka to ensure compliance of the CRA order.
Article 355 envisages that it’s the duty of the Union Government to protect states against external aggression, internal disturbances and to ensure that the governance of the state is carried out in accordance with the provisions of the Constitution and law.

The CRA met on September 19 last but failed to resolve the dispute between the two states over sharing of the Cauvery water.

It, however, directed Karnataka to release 9000 cusecs water to TN where farmers are suffering due to acute shortage of water for irrigation.

Besides the two states, Puducherry and Kerala are also members of CRA.

The CRA meeting had become imperative as the top court on September 3 last had pulled up the PMO officials for not holding a CRA meeting to resolve the water-sharing row between Tamil Nadu and Karnataka.