With TN CM J Jayalalitha adamant on the constitution of Cauvery Management Board (CMB), the Karnataka reacted strongly asking for centre’s intervention on what they call Jaya’s ‘unjustified’ demand.
The Cauvery water dispute between the two southern states goes back to pre independence era when the erstwhile princely Mysore state (now Karnataka) had complained of ‘unreasonable’ arrangement where the Madras Presidency (now Tamil Nadu) allegedly shown undue ‘favour’ by the British establishment in Delhi.
Even after independence the old arrangement – with little cosmetic changes – continued to govern the water sharing between the two warring states.
The state of Karnataka contends that it does not receive its due share of water from the river as Tamil Nadu.
Karnataka claims that the agreements were skewed heavily in favour of TN, and has demanded a renegotiated settlement based on ‘equitable sharing of the waters’.
Tamil Nadu, on the other hand, pleads that it has already developed almost 3,000,000 acres (12,000 km2) of land and as a result has come to depend very heavily on the existing pattern of usage. Any change in this pattern, it says, will adversely affect the livelihood of millions of farmers in the state.
