Water disputes threaten India's economic dream

New Delhi : Over 62 years after India attained independence from colonial rule and 53 years after states were reorganised on linguistic basis, a large number of states continue to be locked in a war-like situation.

While demands to create more smaller states to meet regional aspirations are growing by the day, there are unresolved border disputes among several states, creating occasional tension and at times strife.

However, the most conspicuous is the inability of the authorities to resolve the sharing of river waters.

Despite growing industrialisation and the country's relentless march to become a global economic powerhouse, a large percentage of Indians, especially those living in villages, continue to be dependent on agriculture to eke out a living. Repeated drought and over-exploitation of underground water for farming over the years have meant growing dependence of the farmers on river water to irrigate their farms.

Though farmers in several states protest, and often kill themselves or get killed, the authorities have so far failed to show determination to resolve the issue, mainly due to vote bank politics.

The irony is that most of these disputes came up when the Congress party ruled virtually the entire country, but the respective state governments and the federal government preferred to let the issue linger on endlessly or simply set up judicial commissions or tribunals. If the legislators failed the nation, so did the judiciary with sitting and retired judges appointed as arbitrators taking years and yet failing to resolve the issue amicably.

Most glaring

The most glaring is the status of the Eradi Commission, which has failed to submit its report after 24 years of work. V. Balakrishna Eradi, while serving as a judge of the Supreme Court, was appointed by the federal government as chairman of the Ravi and Beas Waters Tribunal for adjudication of the dispute on sharing of the river waters between the states of Punjab, Haryana and Rajasthan. Eradi retired from the Supreme Court in 1987 and is now 88 years old — ailing and too fragile to even dictate a report. Yet he draws a monthly emolument of Rs129,000 (Dh10,417) at present while the commission which has 24 members of its staff costs the exchequer well over Rs6 million a year. So far it has cost the taxpayers an estimated Rs90 million.

Interestingly the Eradi Commission did not hold a single hearing for eight years between 1989 and 1996 after it submitted its interim report in 1987, which was acceptable to none. Yet the salaries and perks of all members in the panel had to be paid for doing no work.

The Eradi Commission is not the only one which has failed. At present there are four more such commissions or tribunals. There are reports that the federal government, fed up with their lack of functioning, has decided to fold up the Eradi Commission along with those set up to resolve the Cauvery and Krishna river water disputes.

Fixed tenures

The Cauvery Tribunal was set up in 1991 to resolve the dispute between Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Kerala while the Krishna Tribunal came into being in 2004 to resolve the dispute between Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Maharashtra.

They all have been asked to submit their reports within the next six months

The Ministry of Water Resources is also in the process of now giving fixed tenures to all existing and future commissions and tribunals and fixing retirement age of former high court judges and technocrats serving on them as 67 and that of the former supreme court judges as 70 years to prevent former judges deliberately putting off resolving the disputes merely to enjoy benefits of office.

Not that all commissions have failed the nation. The Narmada Water Dispute Tribunal set up in 1969 under the chairmanship of V. Ramaswami, a justice. It gave its report in 1979, which was accepted by the four states involved — Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Maharashtra. It awarded 9 million acre feet of water to Gujarat, 18.25 million acre feet to Madhya Pradesh, 0.25 million acre feet to Maharashtra and 0.50 million acre feet to Rajasthan, helping agriculture in Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh and helping the desert state Rajasthan meet some of its drinking water needs.

Negotiations

The Godavari Water Dispute Tribunal, set up in 1969, had a relatively easy time as the states of Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Orissa, Madhya Pradesh and Karnataka resolved their disputes by mutual negotiations and an inter-state agreement signed in 1975, which the tribunal headed by Justice Bachawat approved in its award.

The water dispute between Punjab and Haryana over sharing of surplus water from rivers Ravi and Beas continues to linger ever since Haryana was carved out of Punjab in 1966.

Even after formal signing of an agreement by chief ministers of Punjab, Haryana and Rajasthan in 1981, several court rulings and a 1987 interim report by the Eradi Commission, Punjab continues to dither on sharing the surplus water with Haryana, and went to the extent of nullifying the 1981 accord and refusing to share water with Haryana, Rajasthan and Delhi. The case is now pending before the Supreme Court.

The dispute over sharing of the Cauvery river water, especially between Karnataka and Tamil Nadu is also far from over. Though less water is flowing into the river which is the only source of irrigation in Tamil Nadu, Karnataka refused to release the water especially in summer on the plea that there is not enough water in the river and that it cannot do so while its cities like Bangalore go thirsty.

If prophets of doom predict the Third World War will be fought over water, several states and their farmers are already bleeding due to combined failure of the politicians, judges and technocrats entrusted with the task of resolving the disputes.

Serious water riots cannot be ruled out if action is not taken.