#CauveryCauldron
#CauveryProtest are just a couple of hashtags
trending since the 12th of September. Miscreants or maybe even
political workers have stepped on to streets and have set the city on fire.
Vandalism has always been a part of any political dialogue that comes up
regarding Cauvery dispute. A river that would be honoured to know that two
states are fighting over it, but completely ashamed when she knows how!!
So
what’s the Cauvery dispute all about?
Historically the dispute dates back to the
British era. In 1924 an agreement was reached when Karnataka, then known as the
princely state of Mysore reached an agreement with Tamil Nadu, then known as
the Madras Presidency. Mysore was permitted to build a dam at Kannambadi village to trap 44.8 thousand
million cubic feet of water, and let the remaining flow into the neighbouring
state. The agreement was valid for 50 years and was supposed to be revisited.
However, the two states were unwilling to accept the agreement and soon after
independence, they took the dispute to Supreme Court. Karnataka wanted changes
in the clauses of agreement after 12 years of independence, but Tamil Nadu
wanted the agreement to last till the allotted 50 years, i.e. till 1974.
In the 1970s, Cauvery Fact Finding
Committee found that Tamil Nadu’s irrigated agrarian land proportion had
increased from an area of 1,440, 000 acres to 2,580,000 acres, while that of
Karnataka stood constant at 680,000 acres. The water demand for Tamil nadu
especially for irrigation increased multifold, but Karnataka refused to part
with more than allotted, else there would be shortage of drinking water for its
people. Karnataka is India’s second most arid state after Rajasthan and
therefore extremely dependent on monsoon. Every time monsoon fails in the
state, which it did this year, there is water shortage and this dispute erupts
like volcano.
The
way out of this dispute
SC’s solution which it provided by ordering
Karnataka to release 15,000 cusecs was modified to 12,000 cusecs over 15 days
was apparently unacceptable to Kannadigas
who then went on a rampage plundering public property in Bengaluru on the 12th
of September’16.
The solution to water shortage has to be
dealt with scientifically and not in the unruly manner that has unfolded in the
city of Bengaluru. Buses being burned in a depot, trucks with TN registration
plates being vandalised, young boys being attacked for their biased FB posts;
all this is manifestation of a society going intolerant. Of course violence by
miscreants can be controlled by the police force, but it wasn’t visible, and
therefore what’s apparent is the political link to hooliganism. However, all of
this remains a speculation unless politicians come together to find a rational
solution.
Until then this dispute will fester like an
old wound whenever one state is ordered to release water and the other one
demands more so.
- Ms. Monica Mor, Sr. Faculty, INLEAD
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