Karnataka Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy appointed Principal Secretary (Water Resources Department) Rakesh Singh as Karnataka’s representative to the Cauvery Management Authority on Monday.
He also appointed HL Prasanna, the Managing Director of Cauvery Neeravari Nigam Limited as the state’s representative to the Cauvery Water Regulation Committee.
He made the announcement in a meeting held on Monday. He also called for an all party meet to discuss on the Cauvery issue on Wednesday.
The Cauvery Water Authority and the Cauvery Water Regulation Committee were constituted by the Central government under a notification issued on June 1. Karnataka had earlier refused to nominate a member to the committee until its grievances are heard.
The Central government had constituted the Cauvery Water Regulation Committee headed by Navin Kumar, the Chief Engineer of the Central Water Commission, on Friday according to the provisions laid out in the Cauvery Management Scheme by the Supreme Court. It had appointed nine members to the committee from four states that fall in the Cauvery basin- Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Karnataka and Puducherry.
With Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Puducherry nominating their representatives to the committee, Karnataka had stayed back from appointing its representative to the committee.
This committee will now assist the Cauvery Water Authority to implement the Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal award as modified by the Supreme Court. The SC had directed the Central government to draft a scheme within six weeks from the date of verdict in February 2018.
When the Centre failed to form the scheme within the stipulated time, the Tamil Nadu government moved the SC accusing the Centre of contempt of court.
After the SC pulled up the Centre for its inaction, the Centre submitted a draft scheme. The apex court then approved the Cauvery Water Management Scheme in May formed under Section 6A of the Inter-State River Water Disputes Act, 1956.
Karnataka had vehemently opposed the formation of this committee since it will dilute the control that the state has on the three reservoirs that are in the Cauvery river basin. It had also pointed out that in the SC order, there was no mention of a river management board and that only a scheme was mentioned.