Nasty politics on Cauvery River Basin hits hard on common man
Bengaluru, Sept 12: The Supreme Court’s verdict on Cauvery water dispute has ignited a sporadic violence in Karnataka. And the Chief Minister Siddaramaiah government was forced to impose section 144.
As predicted by an expert, the fight between the two neighbouring states is going to be even worse.
A person died in police firing while one got seriously injured during the day’s violence that broke out in the cities and pockets of Karnataka. The chief minister also asked Tamil Nadu to protect Kannadigas and assuring to safeguard Tamils in the state.
The violence also flared up shortly after the Supreme Court, modifying its September 5 order, asked Karnataka to release a reduced amount of 12,000 cusecs of Cauvery River water to Tamil Nadu till September 20.
Amid escalating tension in Karnataka, the Centre assured all assistance to the state to maintain law and order and ensure peace. “I am in touch with the Chief Secretary of Karnataka and whatever help is required will be provided,” Union Home Secretary Rajiv Mehrishi told reporters.
At least six Tamil Nadu trucks were set on fire or stoned and a Chennai-based mobile shop and two hotels were attacked in Bengaluru, police said, as activists of different pro-Kannada outfits took to the streets.
Elaborate security arrangements are in place in the city with 15,000 policemen being deployed. Karnataka State Reserve Police, City Armed Reserve Police, Rapid Action Force, Quick Reaction Teams, special forces, Central Industrial Security Force and Indo-Tibetan Border Police Force and 3000 home guards are also on duty.
What makes Cauvery dispute different?
The sharing of surplus water has been the primary issue in most of the interstate water disputes. But Cauvery is a deficit basin and the dispute is over re-sharing of the available or already utilized water.
Moreover, Karnataka upstream and Tamil Nadu downstream has over-utilized water and both the states have a large agriculture area. The irrigation command area in Karnataka is over 2 million acres whereas Tamil Nadu has come down to 1.3 million acres.
The politics of Basin
The national and state political parties are extremely politicising the river basin for the past few decades and the representatives expect a vote bank impression after getting involved in the issue.
The Cauvery River has become a topic of political dialogue. It has also been a pointer in every party’s manifesto since the non-renewal of the 50-year-old agreement in 1974.
However, farmers of Karnataka as well as Tamil Nadu solely depend on this resource for their livelihood. Even the IT hub Bengaluru depends on Cauvery for drinking water.
The agitations spread out across Karnataka has been ignited by the politicians and not by the original beneficiaries i.e. farmers.
Cauvery Family
In 2003, when similar tension broke out in both the states, the farmer leaders of both the states dispersed the hostility and formed a Cauvery family. According to reports, the initiative never resorted to violence and the disputes were promptly solved among themselves. Farmers from both the states even visited the other’s farm and share their knowledge to fight the water scarcity. Even UNESCO applauded the initiative as it solved almost every issue surrounding Cauvery, which prevailed between Tamil Nadu and Karanataka.
Water Disputes in India
As most of the rivers flow interstate and shared by two or more states, rivers in India are hooked up in water disputes.
- The Krishna water dispute between Maharashtra, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh.
- The Tungabhadra water dispute between Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka.
- The Aliyar and Bhivani river water dispute between Tamil Nadu and Kerala.
- The Godavari river water dispute between Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Orissa and Karnataka.
- The Narmada water dispute between Gujarat, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan.
- The Mahi river dispute between Gujarat, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh.
- The Ravi and Beas river water dispute between Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Rajasthan, Jammu and Kashmir and Delhi.
- The Satluj-Yamuna Link canal dispute between Punjab, Haryana and Rajasthan.
- The Yamuna river water dispute between Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Delhi.
- The Karmanasa river water dispute between Uttar Pradesh and Bihar.
- The Barak river water dispute between Assam and Manipur.
