On Monday, the Supreme Court pulled up the Centre — and rightly so — for failing to obey its February 16 order to set up a scheme to distribute Cauvery water among Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Puducherry. In February, the court had asked the Centre to come up with a scheme to implement its water-sharing formula by March 29. The expectation among most was that this meant the creation of a Cauvery Water Management Board. Last week, the Centre requested a three-month extension which was not granted by the apex court. The court, on Monday, gave the central government time till May 3 to submit a draft scheme. Given the volatile nature of the dispute and the previous instances in which protests over the water sharing have turned violent — for example, Assocham estimated that the 2016 protests cost Karnataka Rs 25,000 crore — the Centre should have acted promptly. The decades-old Cauvery dispute mainly between Tamil Nadu and Karnataka has economic, agrarian and political implications. Given this fact, the Centre’s inaction has to a large extent contributed to the present series of protests by almost all political parties in Tamil Nadu.
