The Cauvery water dispute between Karnataka and Tamil Nadu is once again back in the court of the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh with the Supreme Court saying only the Prime Minister can decide on Karnataka’s plea to stop release of water to Tamil Nadu.
The state government stopped releasing water with effect from 7.30 pm on Monday, about 10 days after it began implementing the order of the Cauvery River Authority (CRA). The chief minister Jagadish Shettar, who is camping in New Delhi for past two days, has sought an appointment with the Prime Minister on Tuesday, to request him to convene the meeting of the CRA.
The Prime Minister is the ex-officio chairman of the Cauvery River Authority (CRA).
Vijay Kumar, executive engineer of Cauvery Neeravari Nigama, in-charge of the Krishna Raja Sagar (KRS) dam said release of Cauvery river waters from the reservoir was stopped following the government order. Since 7.30 pm on Monday, only 5,100 cusecs of water had been released from the dam for canals operating from the dam for irrigation needs of farmlands in the Cauvery basin.
Immediately after the apex court’s clarification, Jagadish Shettar announced in New Delhi that the state would petition the Prime Minister once again to stay his September 19 order to release 9,000 cusecs of Cauvery river water to Tamil Nadu from September 20 to October 15.
Hearing Karnataka’s special review petition seeking stay on release of water, on Monday, the division bench comprising Justice D K Jain and Justice Madan B Lokur said: “Our order of September 28 shall not in anyway be an impediment in the way of chairman of CRA to take decision on review application by the Karnataka government.”
The state government has been releasing 9,000 cusecs to Tamil Nadu every day since September 29. This move led to widespread protests in Bangalore, Mysore, Mandya and surrounding villages of Chamarajanagar districts.
The state also witnessed a statewide bandh on October 6 to protest against the release of water to Tamil Nadu. The protests continued Monday in Bangalore, Mandya and Mysore.
External Affairs Minister S M Krishna, who hails from the Cauvery basin district of Mandya, Labour Minister Mallikarjun Kharge, Minister of State for Railways K H Muniyappa and state Congress leader H K Patil met the prime minister on Monday to brief about the severe drought situation in the state.
Krishna had written to the prime minister last Saturday that "the entire state (Karnataka) is waiting with bated breath to get immediate relief as otherwise it will spell disaster for the population in the Cauvery basin".
Kharge said the team informed Singh about the drinking water needs of Bangalore, Mandya, Hassan and Mysore and water requirement for the standing crops in the Cauvery basin area in the state.
A delegation of 16 BJP MPs from Karnataka also met Manmohan Singh, pleading with him to provide immediate relief to the state. Bangalore South Lok Sabha member and BJP general secretary H.N. Ananth Kumar told reporters after the meeting that the delegation informed the prime minister that Tamil Nadu had sufficient water and did not need water from Karnataka.
Meanwhile, the Cauvery Monitoring Committee (CMC) is expected to meet in NewDelhi October 11 to consider the report of two teams of central government officials, which visited Karnataka and Tamil Nadu Friday and Saturday to assess the situation in the two states.
Karnataka has declared 150 of the state's 176 taluks or revenue subdivisions as drought hit. It says water in the reservoirs across the Cauvery basin is just adequate to meet its needs till the monsoon returns next June.
Bangalore city draws about 950 MLD of water from the Cauvery River out of its daily requirement of 1,350 million litres daily (MLD).
