The Karnataka government, in a letter to the Centre, has contended that the prime minister has legal powers under the Inter State Water Disputes Act to review the September 19 decision taken in his capacity as the chairperson of the Cauvery River Authority (CRA).
The government’s contention comes in the wake of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh ruling out a stay or review of the decision of the CRA directing the State to release 9,000 cusecs of water every day to Tamil Nadu till October 20, saying there was no mechanism in place for him to do so at the request of a party. In a letter to Union Water Resources Minister Pawan Bansal, State Water Resources Minister Basavaraj Bommai has stated that clause 9 of the CRA (Conduct of Business) Rules states that CRA chairperson can take a decision if there was no consensus among the member states.
“The power vested to take a decision in the absence of a consensus will give the power to review also,” Bommai notes in his letter. The State has filed a petition seeking a review of the September 19 CRA order and also to keep it in abeyance till a review was taken up. But so far, no decision has been taken on the matter, despite three reminders, he said.
“Therefore, I kindly urge you to take up the matter as a water resources minister and a CRA member with the prime minister and appeal to him to take a decision as the interlocutory application of Karnataka and Tamil Nadu will come up for hearing (before the Supreme Court) on October 12, ” Bommai stated.
State’s plea to Authority rejected
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Thursday rejected Karnataka’s application seeking review of the Cauvery River Authority’s (CRA) direction to release 9,000 cusecs of water to Tamil Nadu from September 19 to October 15, terming it “not maintainable,” reports DHNS from New Delhi.
The prime minister took this decision on the grounds that the CRA did not have the powers to review its own decision.
Singh’s decision came soon after the Cauvery Monitoring Committee, headed by Water Resources Secretary D V Singh, submitted a report that Tamil Nadu should receive 8.85 tmc ft of water from October 16 to October 31.
As per the Union Ministry of Water Resources, Karnataka “fully followed” the order and released 2.76 lakh cusecs of water against the requirement of 2.60 lakh cusecs till October 8.
When the State demanded that the prime minister review the CRA’s order immediately, Water Resources Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal had stated that the prime minister could not review the decision, as he had not ordered release of water to Tamil Nadu in his personal capacity.