Centre buys time on CMB, asks Supreme Court for 10 more days

Requesting the apex court to grant another 10 days, the Centre told the court that though the plan was ready, it needs “fine-tuning”.

The issue, it indicated, can be sorted out only after the Assembly elections in Karnataka, which will be held this Saturday.

This was in line with the low-key expectations of political parties and farmers in Tamil Nadu who said they do not see any progress since the hearing on Tuesday comes just days ahead of the Karnataka elections.

The long-awaited Cauvery Management Board will implement the water sharing formula between Tamil Nadu and Karnataka, as suggested by the top court in February.

But the neutral body is yet to be drawn up, with the government repeatedly failing to maintain deadlines, despite Supreme Court directives.

The government had initially wanted to form the board after the Karnataka elections, provoking Tamil leaders to accuse it of trying to score political points in Karnataka ahead of the elections.

Even the Supreme Court said the government was “acting in guile” when it asked for clarifications after practically missing the deadline.

The last hearing in the case was on 3 May, when the court asked the Centre to file an affidavit on what steps were taken to form the authority or a scheme.

The court had also told Karnataka to be ready to release 4 TMC or thousand million cubic feet of water to Tamil Nadu.

The Centre’s request came as Karnataka refused yet again to release water. At a hearing in the top court in the morning, the Siddaramaiah government said it was not in a position to release the 4 TMC water as ordered by the Supreme Court.

From February, TN politicians paralysed Parliament and people have hit the streets in protest, forcing cancellation of the IPL in Chennai, demanding the Cauvery Management Board.