Karnataka Releases Cauvery Water to Tamil Nadu

From Our Special Correspondent
Daijiworld Media Network - Bangalore

Bangalore, Aug 19: A day after Tamil Nadu’s public works department secretary Ramasubramanyam put the Karnataka government on notice for not making the shortfall in the release of 20 tmcft of Cauvery water so far, the state government has started releasing water from the Krishna Raja Sagar (KRS) dam.

Even as the farmers of the Cauvery belt criticised the B S Yeddyurappa regime for bending backwards to please Tamil Nadu chief minister M Karunanidhi as a quid-pro-quo for the ``statue diplomacy,’’ Karnataka’s home minister and a close confidant of the chief minister claimed that the state was releasing ``only excess water.’’

The authorities have released excess water into the river as they should not impound water beyond 123 ft of the reservoir, Dr Acharaya said pointing out that 12,000 cusecs of water was being released into the Cauvery River from Tuesday morning. The maximum capacity of the reservoir is 124.8 ft.

It may be recalled that the Tamil Nadu government had contended that that Karnataka should make good the shortfall in view of the bountiful rains and the filling up of the reservoirs.

Karnataka had opened two crest gates to release water at the rate of 12,000 cusecs from Tuesday morning.

Meanwhile, farmer leaders K S Nanjundegowda and Konasale Narasaraju have threatened to launch an agitation if the release was not stopped. They said  the state farmers needed water to save the summer crop and the reservoir needed another 2 ft of water to fill up.

Incidentally, Karnataka’s water resources minister Basavaraj Bommai made it clear that the government had no intention of releasing water to Tamil Nadu disregarding the requirements of the state’s farmers.

"We are not yielding to any pressure from Tamil Nadu,’’ he said urging farmers not get needlessly agitated over the issue