Cauvery Verdict: Supreme Court Relief to Karnataka

Cauvery Water Dispute: Supreme Court Relief to KARNATAKA

 New Delhi: The Supreme Court in its final judgment regarding Cauvery Water Disputes on Friday, 16^th February 2018, said that Karnataka will get additional 14.75 TMC of cauvery water, Tamil Nadu will now get 177.25 instead of 192 TMC water.

The court considered the water scarcity in Bengaluru while delivering the Cauvery judgment and also said no deviance shall be shown by any state to the order.

A three-judge bench headed by Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra gave the cauvery verdict while hearing Karnataka’s Special Leave Petition (SLP) against the Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal’s grant of a water-sharing formula between Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Puducherry.

The Cauvery verdict is being read read out by Chief Justice of India, Dipak Misra. Karnataka's advocates Mohan Katarki, Brijesh Kalappa and AG Madhusudhan Naik are present in court.

Karnataka will provide 177.25 TMC water to Tamil Nadu. Which means that Karnataka will get an additional 14.75 TMC as compared to the previous 2007 order, where it was to give 192 TMC to TN.

Bengaluru will receive an additional 4.2 TMC of water. "The pre-independence agreement is valid. Karnataka gets additional water keeping in mind the water shortage that Bengaluru is facing. A Cauvery Water Management board will be set up and they will have control over water allocation, and not the states," says Supreme Court.

"Karnataka's share has been significantly enhanced. Share of Tamil Nadu has been reduced. Bengaluru gets additional water. It will a huge relief to the people of Bengaluru," says Brijesh Kalappa, Karnataka's counsel.

The Supreme Court has decided to set up a Cauvery Water Board to look into the allocation and timely release of the water to all parties concerned. The Karnataka counsels, while talking to the media, are saying that the judgment is very favourable to them. Especially taking into account the water shortage in Bengaluru. 

The Supreme Court has said that the verdict will remain in force for 15 years, after which the apex court will monitor the implementation.

Bengaluru is second in a list of 11 cities apart from Cape Town facing the threat of running out of water based on an UN-backed study, published by the BBC.

The water share for Kerala and Puducherry remain unchanged as DMK MLA Durai Murugan has termed the verdict a 'shocker'.

Bengaluru is a growing city, hence more water is needed. Without reading the complete judgment, we cannot come to a conclusion. The Supreme Court has kept in mind the need of Bengaluru city. This judgment is satisfactory," says Congress leader, Mallikarjun Kharge.

Meanwhile, all buses on Mysore-Coimbatore and Ooty sector have been stopped.

Security has been beefed up in Bengaluru and other parts of Karnataka. Security has been heightened in Bengaluru with city police commissioner T Suneel Kumar saying that 15,000 police personnel have been deployed. In addition to this, personnel of Karnataka State Reserved Police and other forces are also on the ground.