SC to hear Tamil Nadu’s plea
Hemavathi, Kabini and Swarnavathi reservoir projects opposed
The Supreme Court, on Monday, posted the final hearing of petition filed by Tamil Nadu government opposing the move of Karnataka to construct Hemavathi, Kabini and Swarnavathi reservoir projects on the tributaries of Cauvery, to November 2009.
A bench headed by Chief Justice K G Balakrishnan said it would hear the final arguments on the petition in November.
Senior advocate F S Nariman and advocate Sanjay Hegde appearing for Karnataka said the matter might be listed for final hearing, as this was a subsidiary issue. “The issue of sharing of river water has been decided in Cauvery Water Dispute award,’’ Nariman said.
Senior advocate K Parasaran appearing for Tamil Nadu said that the state wanted an early resolution of the dispute.
Petition filed by Tamil Nadu in 2002 said that Karnataka has taken up execution of three irrigation projects on Cauvery’s tributaries, which form part of “the schedule A to the 1892 agreement,’’ without the consent.
The projects are Hemavathi reservoir project on Hemavathi River, Kabini reservoir project on river Kabini and Swarnavathi Reservoir project on Swarnavathi river.
‘’The Mysore (Karnataka) government has commenced the above projects without furnishing any particulars to the petitioner and without obtaining the petitioner’s consent, as required by the inter-state agreements,’’ said the petition filed by Tamil Nadu.
Colonial agreements
Karnataka in its reply said that the case of Tamil Nadu has all along been for enforcement of 1892 and 1924 colonial agreements, which was entered into by the Maharaja of Mysore and the Presidency of Madras at the behest of British Paramountcy in England.
“These agreements were thrust upon the people of Mysore, which is evident from the terms of the agreements giving nearly 80 per cent of water to Tamil Nadu,’’ the reply said. The other parties to the litigation are the Central government, Kerala and Pondicherry. Final award of the Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal on February 5, 2007 has also been challenged before the Supreme Court.
