Bickerings continue to haunt Cauvery Tribunal

New Delhi, July 10 (UNI) Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal (CWDT) appointed to resolve the differences in the decades-old-row is in the eye of a storm.

The open bickerings in the CWDT drew strong reaction from the lawyers participating in the deliberations of the Tribunal with senior Tamil Nadu counsel Parasaran and his Karnataka counterpart Anil Dewan both expressing their sense of 'embarrassment' at the happenings.

Mr Parasaran went to the extent of advising the members of the Tribunal to sort out their differences within the four walls of the Chamber as the Bar could not help the Bench resolve their differences. ''This is the stink of the water dispute,'' he remarked.

He said the disputes reached the Tribunal when there was lack of consensus among the party states and if a consensus eluded after 16 long years of hearings in the Tribunal he did not know what to say.

The people were fed-up and there should be an order even if it is 'zero to 1000 TMC'.

CWDT Chairman Justice N P Singh, who is reduced to a minority in the Tribunal, said he was ready to come out with his order by August six, by which time the CWDT was completing its tenure. ''With what logic the Tribunal can seek its extension?'' he asked, pointing that any delay would affect millions of people and there should be some finality.

Taking the Assessor's report on record is a point of dispute between the Chairman and the two members Justice N S Rao and Justice Sudhir Narain. The Chair mantains that there were no reports of the Assessors and their advice tendered to the Tribunal was confidential.

But he has been overruled by the two-members by asking the states to submit their views to the Tribunal.

Submitting their comments today, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Kerala concurred that they had given their views in writing and no further oral argument was necessary. The Chairman wanted to record this but his brother members were unwilling to sign because it was not an 'order'. Ultimately, the two signed after the chair removed the title of the order as statement.

However, the two members reserved their order on the comments of the state on the Assessors' report.

Mr Parasaran submitted his comments on behalf of Tamil Nadu, followed by Mr Anil Dewan for Karnataka and Mr Ramachandran for Kerala. The Pondicherry counsel will make his submissions tomorrow.

Mr Dewan said the tribunal should make public the assessor's report concerning groundwater in Delta region. When the chair contended that was no such report the Karnataka counsel said that the states's plea if there is any asessor's report on groundwater it should be made public and taken into account.

UNI MCN RL DB2017