Soz for settling water disputes outside Courts and Tribunals

New Delhi, Jan 5 (UNI) Union Water Resources Minister Saifuddin Soz today favoured settling inter-state water disputes outside Courts and Tribunals as any decision arrived through negotiations will have no victors or vanquished.

Interacting with newspersons on host of issues concerning his Water Resources Ministry, Prof Soz said while he understood the compulsions of the state governments who take a limited view about their own territory, the Centre was ready to help the parties in dispute keeping the national perception in the picture. ''We are in a position to take a larger view and be ready with an 'acceptable means' to the parties in dispute,'' he remarked.

Getting awards from Courts and Tribunals was a long and time consuming process and the awards at times are difficult to implement, he said without referring to the ongoing disputes on Cauvery and Krishna currently being arbitrated by the respective Tribunals.

Answering questions on Mullaperiyar dispute between Tamil Nadu and Kerala states, he said he had talked to the Chief Ministers M Karunanidhi and V S Achutanandan when the two sides were articulating their views from their sides. "I am grateful for them for listening to me and come for discussion. We have sustained their dialogue.

Irrigation Ministers of the two states along with their technical team had met and discussed.The two sides were writing letters." Prof Soz said as far as he was concerned, he was ready to help the two sides to arrive at an acceptable solution and hailing from Kashmir valley, he had the advantage of taking an impartial view in the dispute.

He said Karnataka and Goa states had taken a totally extreme views on the constitution of the Tribunal regarding the Kalasa Banduri diversion project on Mahadayi river for drinking water. Goa had approached Supreme Court with a plea to direct the Centre to appoint a Tribunal on the dispute. ''If the Court orders, we will be left with no option but we want the issue to be resolved. We are in touch with the Law Ministry,'' he remarked.

He, however, conceded that the Tribunals did contribute to resolving the disputes involving claims of numerous states in the rivers of Narmada, Godavari and Krishna. ''There should not be a situation where one state wants the water for itself and allows the water flow to reach the seas. The states will ultimately submit to societal compulsions when water came under concurrent list,'' he said.

On the issue of declaring some of the major rivers of the country as National Rivers, he said he had constituted a sub-committee to decide upon the scientific criteria and parameters for declaring them as 'National Rivers'. ''Once they submit the report, I will subject it to further examination and go before the Cabinet for its final approval,'' he added. He, however, refused to give out details of the criteria but indicated that the Centre will have to invest lots of money on the projects to make it acceptable to the states to accept water as a concurrent subject. As of the present status, the Supreme Court has declared that the states were sovereign to use water whereas Centre was sovereign as far as nation was concerned, he remarked.

UNI