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The history of this conflict goes back to an agreement between Mysorestate and Madras state in 1892 when Mysore was a princely state and Madras was under British administration. Before this, from 1831 to 1881, the British controlled both Mysore and Madras. During their regime, numerous plans were drawn up for the utilization of the Kaveri waters by both states. However, the drought and subsequent famine in the mid 1870s put a hold on the implementation of these plans. The plans were revived by Mysore after the transfer of powers from British to the Mysore kings. Madras state, still part of the British administration, raised objections to those plans .After decade long negotiations, a conference was held in 1890 with an objective of allowing Mysore reasonable freedom in dealing with its irrigation works while providing Madras with security from injury to its interests. In this conference, Mysore and Madras reached an agreement. According to the agreement, Mysore state should not establish any new irrigation reservoirs across any of the main rivers without the prior permission of Madras state. Whenever any new irrigation scheme is proposed by Mysore, all information about this should be shared with Madras state and its consent is essential before any work commenced. The agreement also instructs that the Madras government is bound not to refuse consent except for the protection of prescriptive right already acquired and actually existing .Karnataka deems this agreement as having been between unequal partners because while Mysore state was a princely state, Madras formed a part of the British raj. Karnataka also considers this agreement to have been severely inimical to its interests.Things came to a head in 1910 when Mysore, under nalvadi krishnaraja wodeyar as the king and Sir M.Vishweshvaraya as Chief Engineer (shortly thereafter, to be one of the prominent Diwans of Mysore state came up with a plan to construct a dam at Kannambadi village to hold up to 41.5 TMC of water. The dam was planned to be built in two stages. In the first stage a capacity of 11 TMC was envisioned, while in the second stage the full capacity was set to be realized. Madras however, refused to give its consent for this move as it had its own plans to build a storage dam at Mettur with a capacity of 80 TMC. The dispute continued.After a reference to the Government of India, permission was accorded to Mysore, but for a reduced storage of 11TMC. Mysore had no option but to accept the decision and proceeded with the construction. During construction, however, the foundation was laid to suit the earlier desired full storage. This raised Madras hackles and the dispute continued. As a result, the then British Government of India referred the matter to arbitration under Rule IV of the 1892 Agreement. The Cauvery dispute thus had come up for arbitration for the first time.Sir H D Griffin was appointed arbitrator and M. Nethersole, the Inspector General of Irrigation in India, was made the Assessor. They entered into proceedings on 16 july 1913 and the Award was given on 12 May 1914 The award upheld the earlier decision of the Government of India and allowed Mysore to go ahead with the construction of the dam up to 11 TMC.In his award, Sir. Griffin making no secret of the underlying basis for the judgment, concluded thus“In conclusion, I regret that it has been impossible to arrive at a settlement satisfactory to both the parties. Each party set out claims which, on examination, were found inadmissible in whole or in part. The claims of Madras, if allowed, would probably have resulted in making the Mysore Project impossible: those of Mysore, in seriously impairing the interests of Madras. Throughout the proceedings, there has been a regrettable lack of the spirit of compromise. The resolution we have arrived at, recognises the paramount importance of the existing Madras interests, has for its primary object the safeguarding of those interests and does, we believe, safeguard them effectually. At the same-time, it gives to Mysore the opportunity of utilizing for their own benefit their fair share of the surplus waters of the Cauvery.The judgment stipulated that Mysore was not to increase its area under irrigation more than 110,000 beyond what was already existing acres while the same cap for Madras Presidency was pegged at 301,000 acres.Mysore state agreed to the judgment whereas Madras appealed against the same and negotiations continued. Finally an agreement was arrived at in 1924 and a couple of minor agreements were also signed in 1929 and 1933. The 1924 agreement was set to lapse after 50 years, a very long run by any standards. As a result of these agreements, Karnataka claims that Mysore was forced to give up rights to over 80% of the Kaveri waters. However, both Mysore and Madras were able to complete their projects at Kannambadi and Mettur respectively. While Mysore constructed theKRS dam at Kannambadi to a capacity of 45 TMC Madras built the Mettur to hold 93.5TMC