Karnataka's Cauvery water appeal to come up before SC on Sep 14: Minister

Mandya: Karnataka's appeal petition challenging the direction to release Cauvery river water to Tamil Nadu is scheduled to come up before the Supreme Court on September 14, Minister N Chaluvarayaswamy said on Friday, September 11.

Karnataka has moved the Supreme Court challenging the Cauvery Water Management Authority's direction to the state to release 6,000 cusecs of Cauvery water daily to Tamil Nadu.

The CWMA on Tuesday upheld the Cauvery Water Regulation Committee's recommendation directing Karnataka to ensure a flow of 6,000 cusecs of water to Tamil Nadu for 15 days.

"The petition will come up for hearing (on Monday). The state government was compelled to continue releasing water to Tamil Nadu until that day based on the advice of legal experts, as directly approaching the court in violation of the CWRC order could have jeopardised the petition," the state's Water Resources minister said.

Despite the acute water shortage in the state, the government was in a difficult position as it had to comply with court orders within the framework of the federal system, he said.

"Over the last 20 years, this is the year when the least amount of water has been released to Tamil Nadu. Even during similarly difficult situations in the past, there have been instances where 35 TMC of water was released," the minister was quoted as saying by his office in a release.

Chaluvarayaswamy said the government had always been committed to protecting farmers' interests, adding that the state's officials and legal team were presenting strong arguments before the court.

Currently, water is being supplied to farmers for their crops on a rotational basis, while efforts are also being made to fill lakes and tanks, he said.

The minister further said sufficient water would be reserved in the four major reservoirs in the Cauvery basin to ensure there was no shortage of drinking water between December and June.

The government did not want to engage in political mudslinging with the Opposition over the Cauvery issue, he said.

"If BJP MPs from Karnataka and union ministers take steps to secure the Centre's approval for the Mahadayi and Mekedatu projects, it would provide a permanent solution to the state's water-related concerns," he said.

The minister said discussions had already been held with the Union Jal Shakti Minister (C R Patil) regarding the Mekedatu project and expressed confidence that approval would be secured soon.

Regarding cloud seeding undertaken in the state, Chaluvarayaswamy said the exercise had not produced the expected results during its initial phase. However, he expressed hope that favourable weather conditions after the Gauri-Ganesha festival would lead to better results.