From Our Special Correspondent
Daijiworld Media Network
Bengaluru, Aug 24: With AIADMK-led Tamil Nadu Government already approaching the Supreme Court seeking a direction to Karnataka for release of 50 tmcft of Cauvery water as per the Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal’s order, the State Government will be informing the apex court about its inability to release water to the neighbouring State.
Speaking to reporters in Bengaluru on Tuesday, Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and Law and Parliamentary Affairs Minister T B Jayachandra said the State Government was in a precarious position owing to deficit rainfall and low storage levels in reservoirs of the Cauvery basin in Karnataka.
They expressed the State’s inability to ensure discharge of water to Tamil Nadu and mentioned that the State Government would inform to the Supreme Court about its difficulty to release water to Tamil Nadu by explaining the ground reality and actual storage levels in Cauvery basin reservoirs.
Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa said that she had ordered filing of an interlocutory petition in the Supreme Court seeking release of Cauvery water as per the final award of the Cauvery Water Tribunal.
Tamil Nadu’s petition in the apex court has been necessitated as Karnataka had refused to release the water, she contended.
Following deficit rainfall during the south-west monsoon, Jayachandra said storage level in the four reservoirs in the Cauvery basin - Harangi Hemavathy, Krishnarajasagar and Kabini - was sufficient only to meet the drinking water requirements of the towns in the Cauvery basin.
Karnataka has already decided not to release water for water intensive crops such as paddy and sugarcane in the State owing to poor storage of water in its reservoirs.
T B Jayachandra
Tamil Nadu has been seeking release of water by Karnataka as per the Cauvery Water Dispute Tribunal.
"When the State is not in a position to meet the water requirements of its own farmers in the Cauvery basin and can barely meet the drinking water requirements of Bengaluru, Mysuru, Mandya and other towns, where is the question of releasing water for the irrigation requirements of Tamil Nadu?," asked Jayachandra.
The minister said the State Government will present all the facts before the Supreme Court. Fulfilling the stipulations of even the distress formula under the interim award would be out of question, he explained.