A cabinet note revealing the details of the Cauvery Management Board has been drafted by the Union Water Resources Ministry once again bringing the decades-old Cauver River Water Dispute into focus.
The Board may now have 'extra members' to accomodate representations from Kerala and Karnataka, as per The Hindu.
Both states have expressed concerns over the constitution of the board in the last month.
The Board will monitor the flow of water in the Cauvery River basin and decide the quantum of water to be released to the states.
The Cauvery Management Board as per the 2007 order of the Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal was to have three full-time members and six part-time members from Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and the Union Territory of Puducherry.
Tamil Nadu is in favour of the constitution of the board to regulate the quantum of water to be released to states. The TN government has in the past accused the Karnataka government of releasing less water than the amount agreed to by the states.
It holds the Karnataka government guilty of not complying with the Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal and wants a separate, unbiased regulatory body in place to implement the release of water to the states instead of the Karnataka government.
Farmers in the state recently threatened to go on a strike in New Delhi if their demand for a Cauvery Management Board was not implemented by the Centre.
In the absence of a CMB, Karnataka’s water authorities will take the decision on how much water is released to Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Puducherry.
Meanwhile, Karnataka objected the constitution of the board pointing out the Supreme Court verdict mentions a 'scheme'and not necessarily a Board to take decisions on issues of water release.
“Instead of the CMB, the state will seek a Cauvery Decision Implementation Committee (CDIC). The CDIC will have six members, which will be headed by Union Water Resource Ministry and another 11 members of a monitoring agency under it,” Karnataka Chief Secretary Ratna Prabha said earlier.
On February 16, the Supreme Court delivered the long-awaited Cauvery water sharing verdict and announced that Tamil Nadu would get 177.25 tmc ft water, and Karnataka would get 14.75 tmc ft more than it was allocated in the previous judgement. Karnataka's allocation now stands at 284.75 tmc ft.
It was also announced that the Cauvery Management Board would be constituted. The Supreme Court judgement requires that a CMB be in place by March 29