NEW DELHI: The Centre has dissolved the 28-year-old Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal, arguing that “no further reference” in the matter would be necessary. The move might have closed a chapter of India’s one of the longest water sharing Tribunals, but it has drawn attention towards four other such bodies on different rivers which have been functional without any result for years.

The one on the rivers Ravi and Beas (Punjab, Haryana and Rajasthan) has, in fact, been in existence even after 31 years of its constitution. Other tribunals — Krishna (Maharashtra, Karnataka and AP); Vansadhara (Odisha and Andhra Pradesh) and Mahadayi (Goa, Karnataka and Maharashtra ) — too have been on the job for years.

Though the Centre has sought to end such delay by bringing a new legislation having provision of a fixed timeline and a single Tribunal for all inter-state water disputes across the country, the proposed law has been pending in the Lok Sabha since March 2017.

In the meantime, the Centre had to add yet another Tribunal in the list this year. The newly constituted Tribunal is mandated to resolve the issue of sharing Mahanadi river water between Odisha and Chhattisgarh .

Notifying its decision on dissolving the Cauvery Tribunal, which was constituted to resolve disputes among Tamil Nadu , Karnataka, Kerala and Puducherry in 1990, the government recalled the Supreme Court’s final order in the matter. A gazette notification, dissolving the Tribunal on Monday, said, "The central government is satisfied that no further reference to the said Tribunal in the matter would be necessary."

Acting on the apex court’s order, the Centre had on June 1 constituted the Cauvery Water Management Authority (CMA). The Authority in its first meeting on July 2 had ordered Karnataka to release 31.24 TMC water to Tamil Nadu this month. Though the Karnataka is bound to follow the CMA’s order, the state government is learnt to have decided to appeal in the Supreme Court against the setting up of the Authority.

“The proposed legislation would take care of such issues in a time-bound manner and that’s why we are keen on getting it passed in the Parliament. We cannot go on and on like we did in the case of Cauvery and other river water disputes,” said an official while referring to the pending Inter-State River Water Disputes (Amendment) Bill, 2017 in the Lok Sabha.

Under the proposed law, there will be a single tribunal with multiple benches, unlike the present law which provides for multiple tribunals. The Tribunal under the proposed law will have to give its award within a maximum of three years. The decision of the Bench of the Tribunal will be final and binding on the states concerned and it will have the same force as an order or decree of the Supreme Court.

