Jaya ignored, scheme notified
Cauvery: AIADMK, allies meet on Aug 13

NEW DELHI, Aug 11 (PTI) — The Centre today notified the scheme for the implementation of the Cauvery Water Tribunal’s interim award unmindful of a threat from AIADMK supremo J. Jayalalitha, who has opposed the agreement reached between the four riparian states on water-sharing last week.

Hours before the deadline set by the Supreme Court, which will hear a related case tomorrow, the government issued the notification under which a Cauvery River Authority would be created with the Prime Minister as its chairman and the Chief Ministers of Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Pondicherry as members.

The notification also constituted a Monitoring Committee, to be headed by the Secretary of the Union Water Resources Ministry, to assist the authority.

Ms Jayalalitha announced yesterday that the AIADMK and its allies, commanding a strength of 27 MPs in the Lok Sabha, would review support to the Vajpayee Government, if it went ahead with notifying the scheme agreed upon by the Chief Ministers last week instead of the original draft scheme which empowered the Monitoring Committee with statutory powers.

No immediate comments were available from Ms Jayalalitha in Chennai and sources in the AIADMK said that she would meet her allies on August 13 as scheduled to take stock of the latest situation.

According to UNI, the Congress and the AIADMK are in touch with each other in the light of the latest political development, Congress spokesperson Girija Vyas said here this evening.

All democratic and secular parties should be in touch, she said in reply to a question.

In reply to a specific question, she said the Congress and the AIADMK were in touch.

She reiterated the Congress stand that it would not shy away from its responsibility if the BJP government at the Centre collapsed on its own.

The authority, with Delhi as its headquarters, would have the Union Water Resources Secretary as its secretary.

The Monitoring Committee would have Water Resources Secretary as its chairman and the chief secretaries and designated officers of the four states and the Central Water Commission chairman as members. The Chief Engineer, CWC, would be its member-secretary.

By today’s notification, the Centre has rejected Jayalalitha’s demand for the notification of the original draft scheme prepared in 1997, failing which she threatened to review support to the Vajpayee Government.

According to the notification, the role of the authority shall be to give effect to the implementation of the interim order dated June 25, 1991, of the tribunal and its related subsequent orders.

The interim order directed Karnataka to release 205 TMC ft of water to Tamil Nadu on an annual basis.

The authority shall frame rules and regulations for the conduct of its business. It may convene meetings as and when necessary. On the role and functions of the Monitoring Committee, the notification made it clear that it would render assistance to the authority to enable it to take decisions on issues under consideration.

The Monitoring Committee shall assist the authority in collecting information and data and in monitoring the implementation of the decisions of the authority.

In case, any difficulty arises in implementation, the Monitoring Committee shall report to the authority.

The Monitoring Committee shall assist the authority in setting up a well-designed hydro meteorological network in the Cauvery basin along with a modern communication system for the transmission of data and a computer-based control room for data processing to determine the hydrological conditions.

The Monitoring Committee shall meet at least once in three months but it may meet as often as necessary.On the financial provisions, the notification said, all the capital and revenue expenditure required to be incurred by the authority shall be borne by the central government initially till the issue of sharing of cost among the party states or the union was either decided by them through mutual discussions or till the tribunal took a decision on the matter.

The accounts of the authority shall be maintained and audited in such manner as might be provided in rules made by the central government, in consultation with the Comptroller and Auditor-General of India.

A Chennai report said AIADMK supremo J. Jayalalitha would hold a meeting with her allies in Tamil Nadu on August 13 here to discuss the front's response to the Centre notifying a scheme to implement the Cauvery Tribunal's interim award.

Trying time for BJP
From Shubhabrata Bhattacharya
Tribune News Service

NEW DELHI, Aug 11 — Besieged by the twin threat of withdrawal of support from two allies over two diverse issues relating to the dispute over land (Udham Singh Nagar); and water (Cauvery issue); the Atal Behari Vajpayee government is poised for a period of tight ropewalk on the eve of Independence Day.

The Lok Sabha was prorogued today. This in effect means that for summoning a session of the House a statutory period of a fortnight has to be provided. Thus, in case the AIADMK and other Tamil Nadu allies decide to withdraw support in the next few days, the strength of the government can only be ascertained by a meeting of the Lok Sabha which can at best be called towards the end of August or beginning of September. (Had the House not been prorogued today, considering the fact that a joint session of Parliament is due on August 15, a meeting of the Lok Sabha could have been called next week itself.)

Strobelights are focused on the outcome of tomorrow’s hearing in the Cauvery waters issue in the Supreme Court. On July 21, a bench headed by Chief Justice M.M. Punchhi had given the Centre time till August 12 for implementing the interim award of the Cauvery Waters Tribunal through a scheme.

Meanwhile, a Cauvery river authority to enforce the interim award of the tribunal has been set up under the chairmanship of the Prime Minister and a monitoring committee has also been set up under the chairmanship of the Union Cabinet Secretary to supervise the release of 205 TMC of Cauvery waters from Karnataka to Tamil Nadu as recommended by the interim award of the tribunal passed on June 25, 1991. The Cauvery waters scheme was notified by the Union government today.

It remains to be seen if these measures will meet the requirements of the Supreme Court’s July 21 order. On that day, the Bench comprising the Chief Justice and Mr Justice S.S.M. Qadiri, had categorically said "thus far and no further" while rejecting the Attorney-General, Mr Soli J. Sorabjee’s plea that a six-week adjournment be granted in the matter.

The scheme worked out by the Centre in consultation with the riparian states has not met with the approval of the AIADMK and its allies. They will wait for the Supreme Court’s verdict tomorrow before initiating further steps. The matter before the Supreme Court is coming up as a result of a decision of the then government of Tamil Nadu, headed by Ms Jayalalitha, in June, 1995, seeking the apex court’s intervention in the matter of implementation of the Cauvery Waters Tribunal’s June, 1991, interim award.

While the southern allies are agitated over the Cauvery dispute, the ire of the Shiromani Akali Dal over the decision to include Udham Singh Nagar district in the proposed Uttaranchal state, has already been communicated to the BJP. Though the Chief Minister of Punjab and the SAD president, Mr Parkash Singh Badal, did not raise the issue during his meeting with the Prime Minister today, the decision of the SAD’s Political Affairs Committee, threatening to withdraw support, or at least the SAD Ministers from the Union Council of Ministers, is well known.

However, on the Udham Singh Nagar issue, some headway has been made. While the non-inclusion of Udham Singh Nagar in the proposed state may not be feasible, a demand of the Udham Singh Nagar Raksha Samiti, that a Greater Uttaranchal be formed by including more areas of the plains from Uttar Pradesh in the new hill state, may find approval. The lure of getting "backward area" advantage for industrialisation and other economic benefits may prompt some districts of Uttar Pradesh to opt for the hill state, it is being hoped. Till matters are sorted out, at least academically, the Vajpayee-led coalition is "under threat" from the SAD as well.

The question which arises is if on August 13 the AIADMK and its allies will inform the President of India that they are no longer supporting the Vajpayee government, what will be the fate of the five-month old ruling coalition?

There is a catch. Doing away with past practice, the national hook-up of Doordarshan and All-India Radio will not be broadcasting the President’s Address to the Nation on the evening of August 14. Instead, the Editor of a fortnightly, Mr N. Ram, will be interviewing President K.R. Narayanan on the national network at the appointed hour this year. In case Ms Jayalalitha carries out her threat, what reply would the President give to a question, if asked, about the legitimacy of the government on the eve of Independence Day?

Another scenario could be that if Ms Jayalalitha carries out her threat, Mr Vajpayee may be inclined to put in his papers. In this scenario, as in the case of the scenario narrated in the preceding paragraph, a constitutional impasse will emerge.

The Congress is waiting on the sidelines. It is not playing any active role in pulling down the present regime. However, it is significant that time and again Mrs Sonia Gandhi, while denying that her party was active in destabilising or pulling down the Vajpayee regime, has been asserting that the Congress will not be found wanting in case the present regime "collapses".

Significance is being read into the statement made by her in this context in the valedictory session of the Congress Parliamentary Party last week as well as observations made by her in Mumbai over the last weekend. Trying times indeed are ahead for the Atal Behari Vajpayee-led coalition.