The Tamil Nadu Government will move the Supreme Court on the issue of constituting the Cauvery Management Board (CMB), state Fisheries Minister D Jayakumar has said.
The minister, however, declined to spell out what kind of petition the government will move. “We are going to approach the Supreme Court...the government is holding discussions... I cannot reveal (the nature of petition) since it is a policy decision,” he told reporters here today.
A meeting was chaired by Chief Minister K Palaniswami here yesterday to discuss legal steps. Thursday’s meeting was held following the end of a six-week deadline given by the Supreme Court to the Centre to formulate a scheme on the Cauvery dispute.
Tamil Nadu’s stand is that the Centre must constitute the Cauvery Management Board and the Cauvery Water Regulatory Committee (CWRC) within six weeks from the day the apex court gave its verdict, which would be March 29.
The Supreme Court had on February 16 pronounced its verdict on the vexed dispute between Tamil Nadu and Karnataka.
Jayakumar said the government was committed to uphold the rights of the state and welfare of the farmers in the Cauvery issue. He, however, indicated the state might approach the apex court in a couple of days on this matter.
In its judgment on petitions by Karnataka and Tamil Nadu over the final order of the Cauvery water disputes tribunal apportioning the water among riparian states, the apex court had raised the 270 tmcft share of Karnataka by 14.75 tmcft and reduced Tamil Nadu’s share.
The court had compensated Tamil Nadu by allowing extraction of 10 tmcft ground water from the river basin. Since the verdict, Tamil Nadu has been urging the Centre to set up the CMB and CWRC to ensure it received its due share of water from the inter-state river.