Ananth Kumar slams Centre for notifying Cauvery award

The Bharatiya Janata Party MP Ananth Kumar on Friday said the Centre’s decision to notify the tribunal’s final award was against the interest of Karnataka.  

Raising the issue in the Lok Sabha, Kumar said the Centre should instead assist the people of Karnataka by filing a review petition in the Supreme Court. Claiming that the tribunal had failed to provide justice to Karnataka, he said the panel had earmarked just 270 tmc ft of water for the state against its demand of 465 tmc ft. Besides, the panel has failed to take note of Bangalore’s drinking water requirement, which has a population of nearly one crore, he said.

Kumar said the tribunal had allocated more water to Tamil Nadu by over-estimating the state’s water requirements, despite objections by Karnataka. The tribunal also failed to take into account ground water availability in Tamil Nadu, he added.

Opposing the constitution of the CMB, Kumar said if the Centre went ahead with its decision, it would be “a great injustice to Karnataka.”

Meanwhile, Congress MPs from Tamil Nadu met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh here on Friday to thank him for notifying the Cauvery Water Dispute Tribunal’s final award.
“The publication of the notification in the gazette would indeed bring in some respite to the people of Kerala and Puducherry in general and Tamil Nadu in particular,” said a memorandum submitted by the MPs led by Manickam Tagore.

In Chennai, Chief Minister Jayalalitha urged the prime minister to take steps to constitute the Cauvery Management Board (CMB) and the Cauvery Water Regulation Committee to help implement the tribunal’s final award. She thanked Singh for notifying the final award in the Gazette Of India on February 19.