People start with their first blog by colourfully writing about what " motivated " them to do the same.I too wanted to do the same,but failed miserably. While some blog with the intention of "changing the world" others simply do it satisfy their ego,most of which they do not deserve .I am blogging with a simple ambition of becoming a good writer and its only possible by doing it the donkey way of slogging on and on for linguistically challenged people like me.I would like to be simple and original in my choice of words ,avoiding the "GRE" English. Generally there are two types of debaters ,the first one takes the "Word power made easy" way who believes in his rhetoric . On the other hand the second person beliefs in the power of facts, the substance in it.His language is simple,for he is not in a desire to impress the community.His aim is to disseminate information in a minimal and orderly fashion such that even a simpleton is able to understand him.With the intention of becoming a simple,effective and good writer i start my first blog.

THE KAVERI RIVER DISPUTE - A PERSPECTIVE

Kaveri is a non-perennial river that originates at Talakaveri,district of Kodagu,Karnataka and runs through the states of tamil nadu ,kerala and pondicherry before draining into Bay of Bengal.All through her way she nourishes life irrespective of species,sex,caste,creed,political boundaries or any other classification which we recognize.People across the states have great reverence for her, for she is the source of their livelihood and prosperity .

The bone of contention between the people of karnataka and tamil nadu has been the distribution of her waters.While the people of karnataka see the distribution as a historical injustice,the latter see it as the only way of irrigating their 2.8 million hectares of agriculture land.

The birth of the dispute goes back to the time of Chamaraja wodeyar who built two canals to divert the waters of kaveri away from the land of tanjore and arcot. He was unsuccessful in his attempt . However his action unified the people of the above two and created historical hate and mistrust between them and the people of mysore( very much similar to the historical hate,mistrust and prejudice that exists between the hindus and muslims of gujarat which owes its origin to the plunders of muhamud ghazni and his succeeding muslim rulers )

The first agreement between the madras presidency and princely state of mysore took place in 1892.Madras presidency was under British control ,while mysore was under the rule of wodeyars. The mysore plans to revive the irrigation projects after a period of severe droughts in 1889 -90 and 90-91 were met with resistance from the madras presidency.The Tribunal appointed by the British ruled in the favor of madras presidency.It laid down a condition that the state of mysore was required to obtain the consent of madras presidency for any water it wished to utilize or any project it wished to undertake for the utilization of the water.As a result the people of the state of karnataka were never given an opportunity to utilize the waters of kaveri.This was clearly reflected in the fact that madras had an irrigated land in the cauvery basin to the tune of 11.2 lakh acres while that of karnataka stood at a few thousand acres.

The agreement of 1924 was a mere ratification and extension of the previous award.Things came to a head when the proposal to build a dam at kanambadi with a capacity of 45 tmc was vetoed by the madras presidency.However with the onset of independence permission was granted for completing the first stage of kanambadi at a capacity of 11 tmc,which was later extended to 45 tmc.madras too completed its mettur project with a storage capacity of 93.5 tmc.Thus once can clearly see a historical discrimination against the State of karnataka.

The reorganization of states in 1956 created the states of kerala and pondicherry,thus adding two more stake holders.While discussions continued, a Cauvery Fact Finding Committee (CFFC) was constituted. The brief of the CFFC was to inspect the ‘ground’ realities and come up with a report. The CFFC came up with a preliminary report in 1972 and a final report in 1973. Inter state discussions were held based on this report. Finally in 1974, a draft agreement which also provided for the creation of a Cauvery Valley Authority was prepared by the Ministry of Irrigation. This draft however, was not ratified.

While all these discussions went on, Tamil Nadu’s irrigated lands had grown humongously, while karnataka's had stagnated. Tamil Nadu’s irrigated area stood at a huge 24 lakh acres while Karnataka's irrigated area was a mere 4.2 lakh acres. The one sided nature of the so-called agreement was there for everyone to see.

Our constitution addresses the problems of inter-state river dispute.Article 262 of the constitution provides the adjudication of inter state water disputes.It makes two provisions:
1. Parliament may by law provide for the adjudication of any dispute or complaint with respect to the use,distribution and control of the waters of any inter state river and river valley.
2.Parliament may provide that neither the Supreme court nor any other court is to exercise jurisdiction in respect of any such dispute or complaint.

Under the provision,the Parliament enacted the Inter-State water disputes act( 1956) which
empowers the Central government to set up an ad hoc tribunal for the adjudication of a dispute between two or more states in relation to the waters of an inter state river.Thus the Cauvery water disputes tribunal was setup in 1990 on the directions of the Supreme court.

The four states presented their demands to the tribunal as under

• Karnataka - claimed 465 TMC ft as its share
• Kerala - wants 99.8 TMC ft as its share
• Pondicherry - claims 9.3 TMC ft
• Tamil Nadu - wants the flows to be ensured in accordance with the terms of the agreements of 1892 and 1924 (ie., 566 TMC for Tamil Nadu and Pondicherry; 177 TMC for Karnataka and 5 TMC for Kerala).

Heavy lobbying by the Tamil nadu government saw the Tribunal(though it was made to look as if the Tamil nadu got the interim award on the judgement of the supreme court) passing an interim award in 1991 which required Karnataka to ensure 205 tmc of water reached Tamil Nadu.Also the interim award put a cap on the expansion of the irrigated land of karnatka which stood at 11.2 lakh acres.



To be continued........