The Ministry of Water Resources and River Development on Friday directed that the Cauvery Water Management Authority be published in the government gazette. With this, the authority, which will play a major role in sharing of the river's waters amongst three states and a Union Territory is finally official.
In May, the Supreme Court approved the Cauvery Water Management Scheme, framed under Section 6A of the Inter-State River Water Disputes Act of 1956. The establishment of the Cauvery Management Board and the Regulation Committee comes following the apex court’s February 16 verdict. The directive for the publication has been given by Senior Joint Commissioner RK Kanodia to the manager of the Government of India Press.
The directive reads, "Please find enclosed a notification(in English & Hindi) duly signed by Joint Secretary, Government of India regarding framing of Cauvery Management Scheme. It is requested to publish this Notification and upload it on egazette.nic.in immediately. Soft copy has already been e-mailed.."
Headquartered in Delhi, the Cauvery Management Authority will be the sole body to implement the Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal award as modified by the SC. The Centre, as per reports, would have no say except for issuing administrative advisories to it.
The Authority will be assisted in the discharge of its functions by a Regulatory Committee. A bench consisting of Chief Justice Dipak Misra, Justice A.M. Khanwilkar and Justice D.Y. Chandrachud has further directed the government to notify them before the monsoon season sets in June.
It took nearly three months after the Supreme Court order for the Centre to file the draft scheme in court. The NDA government had come under immense criticism for delaying the finalisation of the scheme because of the Karnataka election. The Government's counsel had even said in court that the cabinet was yet to approve of the scheme as Prime Minister Narendra Modi and other ministers were campaigning in Karnataka where election took place on May 12.