To,

Thiru. Narendra Modi

The Prime Minister of India,

Office of the Prime Minister of India,

South Block,

New Delhi – 110001

 

Respected Prime Minister 

Subject: Setting up of Cauvery River Management Board (CRMB)

You should be aware that the sharing of waters of the Cauvery River has been the source of a serious conflict between the two states of Tamil Nadu and Karnataka. The genesis of this conflict rests in two agreements of 1892 and 1924 between the erstwhile Madras Presidency and Princely State of Mysore. The 1924 agreement was set to lapse after a period of 50 years. After the independence of India from the British, in 1956, the reorganization of the states of India took place and state boundaries were redrawn based on linguistic demographics. This has further changed the river water sharing equations as Kerala and Puducherry also staked claim.

By the late 1960s, both states and the Central government began to realize the gravity of the situation as the 50-year run of the 1924 agreement was soon coming to an end. Negotiations were started in right earnest and discussions continued for almost 10 years. While discussions continued, a Cauvery Fact Finding Committee (CFFC) was constituted. The brief of the CFFC was to inspect the ground realities and come up with a report. The CFFC came up with a preliminary report in 1972 and a final report in 1973. Inter-state discussions were held based on this report. Finally in 1974, a draft agreement which also provided for the creation of a Cauvery Valley Authority that was prepared by the Ministry of Irrigation. This draft however, was not ratified.

In 1976, after a series of discussions between the two states and the Central government chaired by Thiru. Jagjeevan Ram, the then Irrigation Minister, a final draft was prepared based on findings of the CFFC. This draft was accepted by all states and the Government also made an announcement to that effect in Parliament.

When the Government of Karnataka started construction activities of Harangi Dam at Kushalanagara in Kodagu, the Government of Tamil Nadu went to court demanding the constitution of a Tribunal under the Interstate River Water Disputes Act (ISWD) of 1956. Later, Tamil Nadu withdrew its case demanding the constitution of a tribunal and the two states started negotiating again. Several rounds of discussions were held in the 1980s. This continued till April 1990 and yet yielded no results.

Based on a petition of the farmers of Tanjavur, Tamilnadu, the Supreme Court of India directed the Union Government headed by Prime Minister V. P. Singh to constitute a tribunal and refer all disputes to it. A three-man tribunal, Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal (CWDT) was thus constituted on 2 June 1990. Soon after the tribunal was set up, Tamil Nadu demanded a mandatory injunction on Karnataka for the immediate release of water and other reliefs. This was dismissed by the tribunal. However, Tamil Nadu approached the Supreme Court which directed the tribunal to reconsider Tamil Nadu’s plea. The tribunal reconsidered Tamil Nadu’s plea and gave an interim award on 25 June 1991. The award also stipulated the weekly and monthly flows to be ensured by Karnataka for each month of the water year. The tribunal further directed Karnataka not to increase its irrigated land area.

Karnataka deemed this extremely inimical to its interests and issued an ordinance seeking to annul the tribunal’s award. The Supreme Court now stepped in at the President’s instance and struck down the Ordinance issued by Karnataka. It upheld the tribunal’s award which was subsequently gazetted by the Government of India on 11 December 1991.

Subsequent to the crisis in 1995, The Supreme Court recommended that the then Prime Minister, P. V. Narasimha Rao to intervene and find a political solution. In 1997, the Union Government proposed the setting up of a Cauvery River Authority which would be vested with far reaching powers to ensure the implementation of the Interim Order. These powers included the power to take over the control of dams in the event of the Interim Order not being honoured. Karnataka, which had always maintained that the interim order had no scientific basis and was intrinsically flawed, strongly protested the proposal to set up such an authority. The Government then made several modifications to the powers of the Authority and came up with a new proposal. The new proposal greatly reduced the executive powers of the Authority. The power to take over control of dams was also done away with. Under this new proposal, the Government set up two new bodies, viz., Cauvery River Authority and Cauvery Monitoring Committee.

The Cauvery River Authority would consist of the Prime Minister and the Chief Ministers of all four states (Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Puducherry and Kerala) and was headquartered in New Delhi. The Cauvery Monitoring Committee on the other hand, was an expert body which consisted of engineers, technocrats and other officers who would take stock of the 'ground realities' and report to the government.

A meeting of the Cauvery River Authority was called on 27 August 2002. Not satisfied with the proceeding of the meeting, Tamilnadu approached Supreme Court for intervention. The focus now shifted to the Supreme Court which ordered Karnataka to release 1.25 TMC of water every day unless the Cauvery River Authority revised it. Karnataka was forced to release water but pressed for In the Subsequent meeting on 8 September 2002, the Cauvery River Authority revised the Court's order from 1.25 TMC to 0.8 TMC per day. However, the Karnataka government in open defiance of the order of the Cauvery River Authority, refused to release any water. Tamil Nadu again went back to the Supreme Court. Karnataka now resumed the release of water for a few days, but stopped it again on 18 September. The centre now stepped in and asked Karnataka to release the water. The Supreme Court ordered Karnataka on 3 October to comply with the Cauvery River Authority and resume the release of water. But, Karnataka once again refused to obey the orders of the Supreme Court. Tamil Nadu filed another contempt petition on Karnataka. 

The term of Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal (CWDT) was initially set to expire in August 2005. However, in the light of the many arguments the court was yet to hear, the tribunal filed a request for extension of its term. The extension was granted and the tribunal's term was extended for another year until September 2006. Subsequently, the extended deadline of the tribunal also passed and the tribunal was given yet another extension.

After 16 years of hearing and an interim order, the Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal announced its final verdict on 5 February 2007. According to its verdict, Tamil Nadu gets 419 TMC of Kaveri water while Karnataka gets 270 TMC. The actual release of water by Karnataka to Tamil Nadu is to be 192 TMC annually. Cauvery Water to be released to Tamil Nadu according to monthly schedule was fixed as, June (10 TMC), July (34), August (50), September (40), October (22), November (15), December (8), January (3), February (2.5), March (2.5), April (2.5) and May (2.5).  The Governments of Tamil Nadu and Karnataka, unhappy with the decision, filed a revision petition before the tribunal seeking a review.

In 2012, again a server crisis broke out in release of Cauvery River Water by Karnataka.

On 19 September 2012, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Chairman of the Cauvery River Authority, directed Karnataka to release 9,000 cusecs of Cauveri water to Tamil Nadu at Biligundlu (the border) daily. But Karnataka walked out of the high-level meeting.

On 21 September 2012, Karnataka filed a petition before the Cauvery River Authority seeking review of its 19 September ruling.

On 24 September 2012, Tamil Nadu filed a petition in the Supreme Court seeking a direction to Karnataka to release Tamil Nadu its due share of water.

On 28 September 2012, the Supreme Court slammed the Karnataka government for failing to comply with the directive of the Cauvery River Authority. 

On 8 October 2012, the Supreme Court of India announced the release of 9,000 cusecs had to be continued and it was up to the Cauvery River Authority's head, the Prime Minister, as a responsible person, to ensure this happened. The Prime Minister ruled out a review of the Cauvery River Authority’s decision until 20 October. Within a few hours, Karnataka stopped release of Cauvery water to Tamil Nadu. 

On 15 November 2012, The Cauvery Monitoring Committee directed the Karnataka government to release 4.81 TMC to Tamil Nadu between 16 and 30 November.

On 6 December 2012, the Supreme Court directed Karnataka to release 10,000 cusecs of water to Tamil Nadu. The Supreme Court asked the Union Government to indicate the time frame within which the final decision of the Cauvery Water Dispute Tribunal (CWDT), which was given in February 2007, was to be notified. Finally, On 20 February 2013, based on the directions of the Supreme Court, the Indian Government notified the final award of the Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal (CWDT) on sharing the waters of the Cauvery. The “extraordinary” notification in the gazette dated 19 February 2013 says the order takes effect on the date of publication. The main award of CWDT is to set up Cauvery Water Management Board (CWMB) as a neutral agency for permanent solution to implement the final award of CWDT. But, even after 9 years since the final verdict and 3 years since the gazette notification, the Cauvery Water Management Board has not seen the light of the day.

Due to non-availability of CWMB, this year once again a huge crisis erupted again. Since Karnataka did not release Cauvery water,

On 22 August 2016, Tamil Nadu approached Supreme Court, seeking direction to Karnataka to release 50.052 TMC as mandated in the final order of the Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal 2007.

On 2 September 2016, Supreme Court asked Karnataka to consider Tamil Nadu's plea. The Court also asked Karnataka to revert by 5 September 2016 as to how much water it can release.

On 5 September 2016, Karnataka informed the Supreme Court that it can release 10,000 cusecs per day, while Tamil Nadu demanded 20,000 cusecs per day. Supreme Court ordered Karnataka to release 15,000 cusecs per day to Tamil Nadu for next 10 days till 16 September 2016. Karnataka did not release the water, instead, approached Supreme Court citing public unrest, seeking modification of the earlier order.

On 12 September 2016, Supreme Court slammed Karnataka for citing law and order problem and modified the 5 September order, directing Karnataka to release 12,000 cusecs of water till 20 September 2016. Again, Karnataka did not release the water citing public unrest.

On 19 September 2016, the Cauvery Supervisory Committee, set up by Supreme Court, ordered Karnataka to release 3,000 cusecs per day from 21 September 2016 to 30 September 2016.

On 20 September 2016, Supreme Court directed Karnataka to further release 6,000 cusecs of water from 21 September 2016 to 27 September 2016 and directed the Central Government to set up the Cauvery Water Management Board in order to provide a permanent solution for the dispute.

However, to the anger and dismay of Tamilnadu citizens, and irrespective of the fact that on the 30th September the Attorney General of India having assured the Supreme Court that the CMB will be set up, on 2nd October 2002, the AG made a total and complete u-turn and has told the Supreme Court that he had consented to the order on CMB by mistake. Subsequent statements of the Union Minister of Water Resources and also the Secretary of Union Water Resources are very discouraging and disturbing.

In a federal country like India, it’s the responsibility of the Union Government to operationalise the judgements and recommendations of the Courts and Tribunals. The law of the land should prevail over political interests.

In the circumstances, I request you to kindly take action to withdraw the interlocutory application filed by the government of India forthwith and constitute the Cauvery Management Board.

Thanking you,

Senthamizhan Seemaan

Chief Organiser,                                                                    

Naam Thamizhar Katchi

 

Copy to:

1.     Union Minister of Water Resources

2.     Chief Ministers of all the States and Union Territories of Union of India