Bengaluru will also get more water to meet its drinking water needs.
Farmers in Mandya in the Cauvery delta region of Karnataka are celebrating after the Supreme Court announced on Friday that the state will get 14.75 TMC or thousand million cubic feet more water in addition to the 270 TMC awarded by the Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal (CWDT) in 2007. Bengaluru will also get more water to meet its drinking water needs.
Kuruba Shanta Kumar, president of the Cauvery reservoir area sugarcane farmers association, said the judgement was fair in addressing the needs of farmers as well as Bengaluru. "We would need more water for sure, but I would say it is a fair judgement," he said.
The verdict comes just months before Karnataka goes to polls and has been claimed as a big victory by the ruling Congress. The Supreme Court acknowledged Bengaluru as a "global city" and allotted it 4.75 TMC out of the state's increased share. Bengaluru is politically important for the Congress as it has 28 assembly seats and the increased share of water, which is expected to solve this fast-growing city's drinking water woes, could prove to be beneficial for the Siddaramaiah government.
''We are happy with the Cauvery verdict. Our legal team will study the details,'' Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said in the Vidhan Soudha in Bengaluru shortly before he read out the state budget. Karnataka legislators congratulated him and hailed the decision ahead of elections.
"Now Bangaloreans can sleep in peace,'' KJ George, Bengaluru's urban development minister said, giving every indication that the Congress will wear this as a victory badge.
The government got a lot of flak over increasing pollution, bad roads, frothing and foaming lakes, allegations of corruption, steel flyover in Bengaluru in the last few months, and the increased share of water is a shot in the arm for the Congress government.
Karnataka's gain is, however, Tamil Nadu's loss. The 765-km long Cauvery river, also called the Ganga of the south, originates in Kodagu district in southern Karnataka and flows into Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Puducherry. The top court modified the 2007 tribunal order to reduce Tamil Nadu's share from 192 TMC to 177.25 TMC. The tribunal's allocation of 30 TMC to Kerala and 7 TMC to Puducherry remains unchanged.
In its judgement, the top court added that no single state can claim exclusive ownership of its water. The bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra also insisted on a body to oversee sharing of Cauvery waters after rejecting arguments by Karnataka and the centre against the Cauvery Management Board. The court has directed the centre to set up the Board within six weeks to supervise the flow of waters to Tamil Nadu.
Rakesh Dwivedi, senior advocate who represented Tamil Nadu, told NDTV, "It is a good judgement. I welcome it. After the setting up of the board, Karnataka wouldn't be able say it has no water."
There were fears of escalation of tensions between Tamil Nadu and Karnataka, but the verdict was welcomed by farmer leaders in both states.
"It is not possible that any verdict can satisfy both sides,'' Karnataka farmer Bidappa had told NDTV.
While Karnataka farmers say a wrong has been corrected by the court, farmers from Tamil Nadu, though disappointed about cut, feel the verdict has gone beyond sharing of waters.
"In its landmark verdict, the court said a river is no one's exclusive property,'' said PR Pandiyan, president of the Tamil Nadu Farmers Association.
"This judgment will become the basis for other water disputes in the country. Even in Tamil Nadu, the Mullaiperiyar and Palar waters dispute can be viewed in a different light now,'' he added.
Another farmer leader Ayyakannu, who had in fact taken the Tamil Nadu farmers agitation to Delhi last year, said the Cauvery Management Board will ensure that Tamil Nadu will not be denied what it deserves.
"So far the allocation was on paper. Now the waters should flow, so our farmers don't face huge losses. Just in this season, farmers have suffered losses to the extent of Rs 25,000 crore due to water scarcity,'' he told NDTV.