K'taka govt. should take the team seriously: BJP on team for Cauvery water assessment

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) hailed the arrival of the team appointed by the Centre to study the ground reality in the Cauvery river basin here in a bid to address the water-sharing dispute between Tamil Nadu and Karnataka and said the state government should use the opportunity to provide proper inputs to the team.

BJP leader S. Prakash told ANI, "At last, the team has come and the fate of Cauvery water now depends on the report presented by the team."

He said that the Karnataka Government should seriously consider the team and provide it with all possible assistance and input to convince them that the state is really short of water and unable to provide it to Tamil Nadu.

"I hope the state government will consider this team seriously, proper inputs will be provided to the officials and convince them that Karnataka is really short on water and already we have released enough water for Tamil Nadu," he said.

"The Chief Minister should personally take interest and also the water resource minister. I'm sure they will do their homework properly and will not politicize anything. Let them focus on the statistics and providing good inputs to the committee," he added.

The team is being headed by Chairperson of the Central Water Commission GS Jha and includes CWC member S. Masood Hussain, Krishna and Godavari basin organisation Chief Engineer RK Gupta and representatives of Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Puducherry.

The decision to set up the panel - formed by the Ministry of Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation - follows a Supreme Court order that asked for a supervisory panel to lead a team to survey the situation in Karnataka and Tamil Nadu and submit a report by October 17.

The court had also directed Karnataka to release 2,000 cusecs of Cauvery water to Tamil Nadu from October 7 to 18.

The high-level technical team will meet in Bengaluru today and visit Karnataka's four reservoirs - Hemavathi, Harangi, Krishna Raj Sagar and Kabini - followed by Tamil Nadu's Mettur and Amaravati reservoirs as well as the lower Bhavani dam. The team is scheduled to comply with the apex court's order to submit their report by October 17, before the next hearing in the matter on October 18.