No agreement on Cauvery water sharing in supervisory committee's meet

No agreement could be reached between Karnataka and Tamil Nadu on water sharing at a meeting of the Cauvery Supervisory Committee on Monday.

It was however decided that the Central Water Commission will draw up a new protocol for online collection of data related to rainfall and flow of water on real time basis in the river, said an official statement.

The committee had met to decide on the quantum of Cauvery river water to be released to Tamil Nadu and other states.

The statement said the committee that met on Monday took a detailed presentation from the Chief Secretaries of Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Puducherry and the representative from Kerala.

"The committee tried to reach to a conclusion but Tamil Nadu and Karnataka did not agree to a particular figure of release of water which was based on scientific facts," the statement said.

It also said that during the discussions, it was found that information Arelated to unauthorised withdrawal of water at a time when it is not permitted was not available, adding that the committee did not wish to pass an order which is not backed by supportive data.

The committee decided that the Central Water Commission will draw up a new protocol for online collection of data related to rainfall and flow of water on real time basis which may be shared simultaneously with all the states concerned.

The next meeting of the supervisory committee will be held on September 19.

All the three states and Union Territory of Puducherry have been requested the submit the relevant information and data by September 15.

This was the sixth meeting of Cauvery Supervisory Committee, under the chairmanship of Secretary Ministry of Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation Shashi Shekhar.A

Chief Secretaries P Rama Mohana Rao (Tamil Nadu), Arvind Jadhav (Karnataka), Manoj Parida (Puducherry) and senior officials from Kerala, Central Water Commission and Union Water Resources Ministry attended the meeting.

The Supreme Court on Monday told the Karnataka government to release 12,000 cusecs of Cauvery river water to Tamil Nadu every day till September 20, modifying its earlier order of 15,000 cusecs for 10 days, which has led to protests in parts of Karnataka.

--IANS

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