Panel submits report on Cauvery water situation to SC

The Cauvery Supervisory Committee (CSC), which visited the Cauvery basin area of Karnataka and Tamil Nadu for assessing the ground situation, on Monday submitted its report to the Supreme Court.

The committee, however, did not make any recommendations with regard to the quantum of water to be released to Tamil Nadu by Karnataka.

"The report only gives an assessment of the ground situation without making any recommendation about the release of water to Tamil Nadu," said a lawyer dealing with the case on behalf of Tamil Nadu.

The committee -- comprising Central Water Commission (CWC) Chairman G.S. Jha, CWC member S. Masood Hussain, and Krishna & Godavari Basin Organisation Chief Engineer R.K. Gupta -- visited the Cauvery basin area of Karnataka and Tamil Nadu on the October 4 direction of the apex court.

The three-member team headed by Jha was also accompanied by one representative each of the four riparian states -- Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Puducherry.

The report will come up for hearing on Tuesday before the bench of Justice Dipak Misra, Justice Amitava Roy and Justice A.M. Khanwilkar.

The Supreme Court, by its October 4 order, asked Karnataka to release 2,000 cusecs of water to Tamil Nadu every day for 12 days from October 7 to 18, and asked the Cauvery Supervisory Committee to visit the Cauvery basin area of the two states for an assessment of the ground situation and report back to it by October 17.

Upon reaching Bengaluru on October 7, the CSC said it favoured judicious sharing of the scarce water resource between Karnataka and Tamil Nadu following deficit monsoon rains this year.

"Our aim is to ensure judicious distribution of the river water between the two states," Jha said during his two-day visit to Cauvery basin areas of Tamil Nadu and Karnataka.

He told the media persons in Bengaluru that "we will submit a report to the Supreme Court with data on the live storage levels, inflows and outflows of water in the reservoirs in both the states for a fair distribution".

--IANS

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