What is hot - Cauvery river issue

Cauvery flows from Karnataka to Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Pondicherry. The Cauvery dispute had some respites in 1882 and 1924. There was to be a review of the 1924 agreement in 1974 but countless rounds of talks did not resolve the issue.

In 1991, the Cauvery river tribunal ordered Karnataka to release 205 tmc ft water to Tamil Nadu. It also stipulated some weekly quantum of flow. The violence that followed this interim award claimed many lives, as the Tamils living in Karnataka were targeted. The tribunal in its final verdict has allotted 270 tmc ft of water to Karnataka, 419 tmc ft to Tamil Nadu, 30 tmc ft to Kerala and seven tmc ft to Pondicherry.

The tribunal order has given a higher share to Tamil Nadu with a time table of monthly release by Karnataka. The tribunal chose 50 per cent dependability instead of 75 per cent demanded by the State. For monitoring, the tribunal did not choose Mettur dam as wanted by the State. Double crop has not been allowed in about 3.2 lakh acres. Moreover, the tribunal has not protected the existing irrigation completely and not spelt out the distress sharing formula in detail.

Chief Minister K Karunanidhi has to tackle the farmer's issue with care in the ensuing all-party meeting convened on February 19. He also has to ensure that the Tamils living in Karnataka are not attacked as they were in 1993.

Tamil Nadu has 16 Ministers in the UPA Government and Karnataka feels that the DMK had bullied the Centre to give the verdict in its favour. Karnataka does not have a single Cabinet Minister and to save his own skin, Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting Ambareesh resigned on February 14. The pressure would soon be on Union Ministers from Tamil Nadu to follow the suit.

In Karnataka, Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy is new to the deal and his main problem is that he is leading a coalition Government.

The solution to this emotive issue is not going to be simple. First, the States should realise that water is a national resource and they have to share it by adopting a give-and-take policy. More-over, the problem comes only when there is a distress year and at that time there should be some tolerance.

Second, political parties should not make use of this emotive issue for electoral benefits. Besides, the violence and hatred against people from other States should not be allowed to grow because every citizen has a right to live anywhere in the country.

The Centre has to think of how best to handle these disputes. One way could be to declare rivers as national resource and bring them under the Water Resources Ministry. The river waters could be allocated according to the needs of the various States. What is required is a National Water Policy, which would do justice to all the States.