Tamil Nadu and Karnataka, the principal riparian States of the Cauvery basin, can use the framework established by the Cauvery Water Management Authority (CWMA) to evolve a distress-sharing formula, according to A. Ravindra, former Chief Secretary of Karnataka. Incidentally, the CWMA will meet in New Delhi on Friday (November 3).
In a telephone interview to The Hindu on Wednesday, Dr. Ravindra, who served as the Chief Secretary 21 years ago and faced contempt of court proceedings initiated by Tamil Nadu in the Supreme Court over Cauvery water release, said the technical mechanism available with the CWMA could supply all the data. “It can certainly assess the actual damage, crop loss and water levels. That can be the basis for arriving at a formula.”
The “issue” with the Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal’s final order was that “it is all okay in a normal season. But we are dealing with a situation wherein there is a severe shortage. Rain has failed. In such a situation, the arrangement for the normal season does not work,” said the former IAS officer of the 1965 batch, who authored a monograph on the dispute in 2015.
Acknowledging that distress could not be “easily defined”, Dr. Ravindra, who holds a Ph.D in development studies with specialisation in the urban sector, said the quantum of rainfall and water availability varied from year to year. “But you require data which can be provided by the technical committees. Eventually, sharing the distress involves a political decision. That is the key. If that is clinched, conflicts can be avoided,” he said.
Pointing out that the present political situation provided a glimmer of hope, he said, “The States are being ruled by non-BJP parties that are part of INDIA [Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance]. There exists a more cordial atmosphere. The Chief Ministers of both States, Siddaramaiah and M.K. Stalin, can meet and try to see how best it can be resolved.”
He recalled that in 2002, the two States were about to finalise an agreement through deliberations of the Cauvery Monitoring Committee, which was headed by the Union Water Resources Secretary and had the Chief Secretaries of all the basin States as Members. “At that time, it was Tamil Nadu that backed out,” Dr. Ravindra said. When told that Tamil Nadu’s Water Resources Minister Duraimurugan, ranked number two in the Cabinet, had been arguing against the option of talks because, in his assessment, such a course would amount to negating all the gains made by Tamil Nadu in the last 30-odd years through the Supreme Court and the Tribunal, the former Chief Secretary replied that the States could then use the platform provided by the CWMA to arrive at a formula. He also emphasised that any such formula could be implemented only with the approval of the political executive.
About the present dispute and the situation in 2002, he conceded that “it is less intense now”. Both States had severe drought and agitation then. The then Chief Minister of Karnataka, S.M. Krishna, who hails from Mandya, had undertaken a “padayatra”. In the ultimate analysis, “what is important is that the two States must work out a formula to share the scarce resource of water,” Dr. Ravindra added.
