Karnataka Council resolves against releasing Cauvery water

A special session of the Karnataka Legislative Council on Friday unanimously passed a resolution against releasing more Cauvery river water to Tamil Nadu.

"The resolution is unanimously passed after carefully considering the needs of the inhabitants of the state of Karnataka whose interests are likely to be gravely jeopardised if water in the four reservoirs is in any way reduced other than for meeting the drinking water requirements of inhabitants in the Cauvery basin, including Bengaluru," the motion said.

A special session of the state Legislative Assembly was also debating a similar resolution, moved by Chief Minister Siddaramaiah.

The upper house noted that in the water year 2016-17, there has been an acute situation of distress, though the shortfall in the (river) basin would become known only at the end of the season on January 31 next year.

"It is now resolved to direct that in this state of acute distress, it is imperative the state government ensures no water from the present storage be drawn, save and except for meeting drinking water requirements of the villages and towns of the Cauvery basin and for the entire city of Bruhat Bengaluru," said the resolution.

The resolution, moved by BJP lawmaker C.T. Ravi, was debated and discussed by the upper house, in which Leader of the House and Home Minister G. Parameshwara and opposition leader and BJP lawmaker K.S. Eshwarappa also spoke.

"This House seriously notes that the combined storages in the four reservoirs, viz., Krishna Raja Sagara (KRS), Kabini, Harangi and Hemavathy have reached alarmingly low levels with only 27.4 TMC (thousand million cubic) feet of water," the resolution asserted.

The resolution in the state legislature was moved in light of the state cabinet deferring release of 6,000 cusecs daily for a week from September 21 as directed by the Supreme Court on September 20.

The decision to defer releasing water was taken by the state cabinet on September 21 after an all-party meeting directed the state government to not release any more water to Tamil Nadu, as the state required it to meet the drinking needs of its people in the region.

--IANS

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