Cauvery file: Impact of 1956.

The year 1956 has a very profound impact on the political history of India as it witnessed passing of the States Reorganisation Act, 1956 as a major reform of the boundaries of India's states and territories, organising them along linguistic lines.

The Act came into effect alongwith the Constitution (Seventh Amendment) Act, 1956, which (among other things) restructured the constitutional framework for India's existing states and the requirements to pass the States Reorganisation Act, 1956 under the provisions of Artcles 3 & 4 of the constitution.

Impacts on the concerned states.

1. Kerala: formed by the merger of Travancore-Cochin state with the Malabar district of Madras State.
2. Madras State: The southern part of Travancore-Cochin (Kanyakumari district) was added to the state. (The state was renamed Tamil Nadu in 1968.)
3. Mysore State: enlarged by the addition of Coorg State and the Kannada speaking districts from southern Bombay state and western Hyderabad state. (The state was renamed Karnataka in 1973.)
4. Puducherry had already become a de facto Union territory in 1954. It entered into the dispute in 1978.

All these changes further changed the equations as Kerala and Puducherry also jumped into the fray. Kerala staked its claim as one of the major tributaries of the Kaveri, the Kabini, now originated in Kerala. The Karaikal region of Puducherry at the tail end of the river demanded the waters that it had always used for drinking and some minimal agriculture.

Inter-State Water Disputes Act of 1956.

The Inter-State Water Disputes Act of 1956 was legislated to deal with conflicts, and included provisions for the establishment of tribunals to adjudicate where direct negotiations have failed. However, states have sometimes refused to accept the decisions of tribunals.