Process to set up Cauvery Management Board has begun

CHENNAI: Union government has begun the process to set up Cauvery Management Board as directed by the Supreme Court and a proposal is likely to be moved before the Cabinet soon after going through the decision making process.

“We are in the process (of setting up the CMB). Any decision-making has a procedure and the procedure will have to be followed. We have begun the process. I can only say this much at this juncture,” Union Water Resources Secretary Shashi Shekhar told Deccan Chronicle.

He also said the process began after the Supreme Court directed the Union Government to set up the Cauvery Management Board within four weeks.
“After all, it is a Supreme Court order and the court has given us four weeks time….due process will follow,” Mr Shekhar said, when pressed further.

 Cauvery Management Board, as and when it is constituted, will be a shot in the arm for Tamil Nadu in its decades-long fight for its rightful share of Cauvery river water as the proposed institution would take a call on the release of water to states and bring the reservoirs across the disputed river under its direct supervision.

The CMB would be advantage Tamil Nadu, farmers and state government officials feel, because the state has got the maximum quantum of water allotted by the CWDT and it has always been at the mercy of Karnataka Government for release of water from Cauvery.

Once the CMB is constituted and comes into force, it will have absolute powers to ensure the implementation of the award by the CWDT.