This Article is From Oct 07, 2016

Bus Services Resume Between Tamil Nadu And Karnataka After A Month

Bus Services Resume Between Tamil Nadu And Karnataka After A Month

The bus services were susupended due to the violence over Cauvery water.

Chennai: Nearly a month after they were suspended due to violence over Cauvery water, bus services between Tamil Nadu and Karnataka resumed on Thursday morning.

The resumption of bus and lorry services comes after Karnataka earlier this week started releasing water from Cauvery river to Tamil Nadu as directed by the Supreme Court.

Inter-state buses were suspended in September after Bengaluru saw violence following Supreme Court's ruling that Karnataka release water from Cauvery to its neighbouring state.

Scores of buses from Tamil Nadu were torched in Bengaluru on September 12 in protest against the top court's order.

Over the last several weeks, people from both states walked around 3 kilometres due to lack of public transport.

A senior police officer in Tamil Nadu said, "Situation is normal now. We are monitoring. No individual security is provided to buses."

Tamil Nadu had moved the Supreme Court for direction to release its share of Cauvery waters as formulated by the Cauvery Tribunal. Though Karnataka released 15,000 cusecs and 12,000 cusecs of water as directed by the top court, later it defied court directions, armed with an assembly resolution against water release. The state had claimed it had adequate waters only for drinking requirements.

The court had last week asked the centre to set up a Cauvery Water Management Board whose experts were to travel to both states to assess their needs.

The centre yesterday said it cannot create this board and needs the authorisation of parliament to set up the new committee. When asked why it did not disclose this earlier, the centre said "it was a mistake."

Tamil Nadu wants the board to be created. Karnataka does not - it is concerned about its reservoirs (four on the River Cauvery) being exposed to experts who could disagree from its assessment and declarations of its need for water resources.

Tamil Nadu has derided the centre for claiming it cannot set up the board, and has accused it of siding with Karnataka because it hopes to displace the Congress government there in the next state election, which is due soon.
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