Deputy Chief Minister and Minister for Water Resources D.K. Shivakumar has said that Karnataka will place before the Supreme Court, which will hear Tamil Nadu’s plea for release of its allotment of Cauvery river water for the month of August, the facts about Karnataka’s dire water situation.
Speaking to the media regarding the release of Cauvery water, he said: “The Cauvery Water Management Authority (CWMA) has told us to release 10,000 cusecs of water daily till August 31. Karnataka needs a total of 124 tmcft of water to meet its basic needs. However, we now only have 55 tmcft available in the Cauvery basin. Around 24 tmcft of water is needed for drinking purposes for Bengaluru city alone. Another 20 tmcft of water is required for drinking purposes in Mysuru, Mandya, and Ramanagara.”
After all-party meeting
Mr. Shivakumar said the government will convene an all-party meeting on August 23 regarding Cauvery, Mekedatu, and Mahadayi issues. “We have invited former Chief Ministers, Members of Parliament, and legal experts to the meeting. If an all-party delegation agrees to go and put pressure on Union government, we are ready for it,” he said. “After the all-party meeting, it will be decided whether to file an appeal in the Supreme Court or not.”
He argued that the Tamil Nadu government had “gone against the CWMA and not the Karnataka government.” The Union government could have filed an affidavit against the Tamil Nadu petition, but they did not. “All these issues are well known to former Chief Ministers like Basavaraj Bommai and H.D. Kumaraswamy,” Mr. Shivakumar explained.
“Mr. Kumaraswamy had said in the past that we and the people of Tamil Nadu should solve the Cauvery issue like brothers. I am only following his word,” said Mr. Shivakumar. “It is my hope that instead of fighting over the issue of water, we should talk and solve it.”
“We have no water to give Tamil Nadu. We released water twice so that the farmers’ crops would not get damaged. We have already requested the authority to reconsider their decision,” he added.
Protest by BJP at Mandya
Meanwhile, several BJP activists gathered at Sanjay Circle in Mandya and staged a demonstration against the release of Cauvery water to Tamil Nadu.
The protesters staged a sit-in at the protest venue, blocking movement of traffic. A section of the protesters set fire to tyres to display their ire, but the police rushed to douse it. Sumalatha Ambareesh, Independent MP, who joined the protesters, regretted that injustice was always meted out to farmers of Mandya region whenever a crisis erupts over sharing of Cauvery waters with Tamil Nadu.
