From Our Special Correspondent

Daijiworld Media Network - Bengaluru

Bengaluru, Jan 5: Reacting to Supreme Court’s latest order directing Karnataka to release 2000 tmcft of Cauvery water to Tamil Nadu daily till further orders, Karnataka’s water resources minister M B Patil wondered: "How can we release water when there is no water in all the four reservoirs in the Cauvery basin?"
The minister said Cauvery basin area was facing a severe drought for the second consecutive year and the water level at KRS was close to dead storage.

The storage level would reach dead storage in three days if water is released at the rate of 2,000 cusecs, according to officials.

The Supreme Court on Wednesday said it would hear the Cauvery water issue further on February 7. It directed Karnataka to release 2,000 cusecs of Cauvery water each day to Tamil Nadu, till further order.

Tamil Nadu’s counsel, Shekhar Naphade requested the apex court to bring a logical end to the case and wanted continuous hearings. The apex court said the hearing in the case would go in for three weeks starting from February 7 so that the Cauvery water issue can be resolved.

While deciding not to refer the case to a tribunal on December 9, the apex court said the appeals by both states against the award were maintainable and added that the order for Karnataka to release 2000 cusecs water per day to Tamil Nadu would continue.

In November last year, the AIADMK had suggested the formation of Cauvery Management Board (CMB) to resolve the differences between the two southern states over Cauvery water.

The dispute over the water goes back to 1892 when a deal was filed between Madras Presidency and Mysore for arbitration but led to other sets of problems.
Attempts were made later to arbitrate between the two states under the guidance of the central government and another pact was signed in 1924.

As Kerala and Puducherry also staked claims of their share in water after independence, a panel was for formed in 1970 to find out the situation on ground. It submitted its report two years later and more research was done on the case by a panel committee and in 1975, both states reached an agreement. But when a new government was formed in Tamil Nadu, it did not give consent to terms of the deal leading to growth of the dispute.