TN awaits Tribunal's award with bated breath

Chennai, Feb 4: The Cauvery delta districts in Tamil Nadu are waiting with bated breath for the Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal's final award, scheduled for tomorrow, that will hopefully mark the end of the 16-year-long legal battle over water between Tamil Nadu and Karnataka.

Expectations for a favourable verdict are high, as the 1991 interim award of the Tribunal, comprising Chairman Justice N P Singh and members N S Rao and Sudhir Narain, had directed Karnataka to release 205 tmcft of water every year to Tamil Nadu.

Tamil Nadu Public Works Minister Duraimurugan told sources that the state would get a fair deal if the Tribunal went by the report of assessors appointed to study the water requirements of the riparian states.

According to the assessors' reports, released by the tribunal members in May 2006, Tamil Nadu was to get 395 tmcft for irrigating 24.7 lakh acres, Karnataka 250 tmcft for irrigating 18.85 lakh acres, Kerala 33.4 tmcft and Puducherry seven tmcft. This estimate was based on the total average availability of 740 tmcft in the Cauvery basin.

The Minister said the state had also argued that the Tribunal should provide for effective implementation of the final award in the judgement itself.

''Let's keep our fingers crossed and wait,'' he added.

The tribunal was constituted in 1990 to apportion Cauvery water among the riparian states of Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Kerala and Puducherry.

UNI