New Delhi:
Bowing to the Supreme Court orders and rejecting Karnataka's opposition, the Central government today notified the Cauvery Tribunal award after six years. This is now meant to settle once and for all the on-going tussle between Tamil Nadu and Karnataka over the waters of the river Cauvery.
According to the award notified today, Karnataka is to release 182tmcfeet water to Tamil Nadu. In addition Tamil Nadu is to get 10tmcfeet for environmental purposes. Tamil Nadu will have to release 7 tmcfeet to Puducherry.
Karnataka government has been opposing the notification and Tamil Nadu wanting it notified.
Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal, constituted on 2 June, 1990, had passed the final award on February 5, 2007 but the award was not put in operation as the Centre did not notify it in official gazette.
Ticking off the Centre for "flouting the law" for the last five years, the Supreme Court on February 4 set a February 20 deadline to notify Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal award, saying it has no discretion or choice but to do so.
Once a gazette notification is issued, the Cauvery River Authority (CRA) chaired by the Prime Minister and the Cauvery Monitoring Committee will cease to exist.
As Karnataka assembly goes to polls May, the Centre's notification is likely to create trouble for the Congress.
Farmers and Kannada organizations had planned protests ahead of the notification. The government has stepped up security in the Cauvery basin delta areas and prohibitory orders are put in place around the Krishnaraja Sagar (KRS) reservoir near Mysore.