Will formulate scheme before May 3, assure MoS, Secretary

“I want to tell the people of Tamil Nadu that Prime Minister Narendra Modi government is a responsive government. This matter is being politicised and it must not be. We want a permanent solution to this decades-old problem,” he said. 

Earlier, Water Resources Secretary UP Singh said the Ministry will work out a scheme as per the orders of the Supreme Court before May 3. 

“The scheme will be placed before the Union Cabinet before it is filed in the Supreme Court, where the matter is being heard,” he added. Meghwal said the Centre was abiding by what the Supreme Court said about forming a Cauvery River Management Board and a scheme under Section 6A of the Inter-State Water Disputes Act. 

“The Union government has had consultations with the Chief Secretaries and Water Resources Secretaries of the states concerned and we have taken their views about the kind of mechanism they want,” he said. 

“We also asked them whether they wanted technical person, a person of the judiciary or bureaucracy to head the board. In a federal structure we have to build a consensus with states. In the meantime, some states went to the court and the apex court said in three weeks, the Centre should come up with a scheme. We are doing that,” he added.