Bring pressure on Centre not to notify Cauvery award: Gowda

Janata Dal (S) President H D Deve Gowda on Monday said the State government should bring pressure to bear on the Centre not to issue the notification on the final award of Cauvery River Water Disputes Tribunal (CRWDT).

Addressing reporters here, he said the State should convince the Centre that implementation of the final award will adversely affect people in the Cauvery basin.

Several areas of Bangalore will be deprived of drinking water if the final award is implemented.

The CRWDT gave the final award in 2007 and Karnataka has challenged it in the Supreme Court, besides filing a clarificatory appeal before the CRWDT. But the Cauvery Monitoring Committee (CMC) recently informed all the riparian States that the final award will be notified by the end of December.

Gowda said the Centre had refused to notify the Krishna Tribunal award citing pending special leave petitions in the Supreme Court.

Similarly, though the final award of Ravi-Beas water disputes has been issued 19 years ago, the Centre has not notified it as a case is pending before the apex court. “I do not think Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will let down the State on the Cauvery issue,” he stated.

All-party delegation

Deputy Chief Minister R Ashoka told reporters in Bidar on Monday that an all-party delegation would visit New Delhi soon to urge the Centre not to notify the final award until the Supreme Court decides on a writ petition filed by the State government in this regard.

“People of Karnataka will never forgive the Congress, if the UPA-led Union government notifies the award by overlooking the objections raised by the State,” he remarked.