Concerned over the direction of Cauvery Water Regulation Committee (CWRC) to release 5,000 cusecs of Cauvery water a day for the next 15 days, Karnataka has taken a firm decision that it is “not possible” release water any more.
Announcing this to mediapersons hours after the direction by the CWRC, Deputy Chief Minister D.K. Shivakumar, who also holds the Water Resources portfolio, said, “Myself and Chief Minister Siddaramaiah have held consultations and arrived at a decision that we are not in a position to release water.”
He said that Karnataka would convey its stand to the Cauvery Water Management Authority (CWMA) during its meeting which is likely to be held either on Wednesday or Thursday. He said, “The CWRC has asked us to release 5,000 cusecs of Cauvery water to Tamil Nadu every day. But we have told the authorities that we do not have water to release.”
He explained that Tamil Nadu had demanded the release of 12,000 cusecs of water a day which had been pegged at 5,000 cusecs by the CWRC.
‘Not suppressing facts’
Mr. Shivakumar said though Karnataka had filed an affidavit before the Supreme Court, the court had told both the states that it would not intervene. Hence, Karnataka had decided to speak to its legal team in Delhi, he said. “We are not suppressing any facts or providing false information. We have invited the authorities concerned to visit our State and assess the situation,” he said.
Priority to drinking water
The Dy.CM said there was hope earlier when Bengaluru got some rains. However, the State was now facing a distress situation due to the prolonged dry spell, he noted. Hence, it had decided to give priority for using the present storage for drinking purposes. The government would think of providing water to farmers for irrigation at a later stage after taking care of drinking water requirements, he said.
To a query on whether the Cauvery water sharing issue was being politicised, he said it was wrong to make any allegations against judges or senior officials of different authorities. He said, “We seek co-operation from the Opposition parties and we are confident that people will stand with us.”
Emergency meeting
The CM too held an emergency meeting of Ministers and officials to take stock of the issue soon after the CWRC came out with the direction.
Meanwhile, the Opposition BJP urged the State government to desist from releasing water to Tamil Nadu. Both the BJP State president Nalin Kumar Kateel and former CM Basavaraj Bommai maintained that they would stand with the government if it decided against releasing water to Tamil Nadu.
They argued that it was not wise to release water to Tamil Nadu when Karnataka was facing severe drought.
