The Brijesh Kumar Tribunal on sharing of Krishna river waters (Krishna Water Disputes Tribunal-II), on Wednesday, ruled that there would be no reallocation of water among the four riparian states of Maharashtra, Karnataka, Andhra and Telangana. Instead, it would look at redistribution of already allocated water (1005 tmc) between Andhra and Telangana.
The Krishna Water Disputes Tribunal set up in 1969 gave the final verdict on November 29 2013, allocating water to Andhra (1005 tmc), Karnataka(906) and Maharashtra (666), after a really long wait. After the reorganization of Andhra Pradesh into Andhra and Telangana, the latter sought reallocation of water to all four riparian states. The move was opposed by Maharashtra and Karnataka. However, the Tribunal has now asked the two states to make their claims on their respective shares before December 14.
Karnataka Water Resources minister M.B. Patil said “The SC decision will help us go ahead with our plans to utilise our share of Krishna water as allocated by the tribunal earlier.”
“Our counsels representing the State before the tribunal had argued that the reallocation of water should be confined to sharing of water between Andhra Pradesh and Telangana from the share allocated to the erstwhile united Andhra Pradesh,” said Patil, who urged the Centre to issue the gazette notification of the final award of the Krishna Tribunal(KWDT-II).
SC reserves order on Cauvery
Meanwhile, a three-member bench of the Supreme Court comprising Justices Dipak Misra, Amitava Roy and A.M. Khanwilkar, on Tuesday, directed Karnataka to continue the release of 2,000 cusecs of water daily to Tamil Nadu till further orders.
Two days back, the nine-member expert committee headed by Central Water Commission's P.S. Jha, which toured both states to take stock of the situation had highlighted the grim situation in both states in its 40-page report submitted before the apex court. However, it had made no recommendations on water sharing.
While, the apex court acknowledged that both Karnataka and Tamil Nadu were in dire need of water, it warned the two states against any acts of violence from its citizens over the dispute.
"Citizenry, common sense should prevail, especially when the dispute is before us and we are trying to resolve the crisis. We warn you with absolute seriousness that citizens cannot be a law unto themselves," observed the court.
The SC reserved its order on maintainability of appeals made by Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Kerala against the Cauvery Tribunal's final order in 2007.
