It endorses Cauvery Water Regulation Committee’s recommendation asking Karnataka to release 3,000 cusecs to T.N. till October 15; Siddaramaiah govt. to file review petitions before SC, CWMA
The Cauvery Water Management Authority (CWMA) on
Friday upheld the decision of the Cauvery Water Regulation Committee (CWRC) asking Karnataka to release 3,000 cubic feet per second (cusecs) to Tamil Nadu till October 15. It also told Karnataka to
make good the shortfall of 0.71 thousand million cubic feet (tmc ft) that arose
during the 15day period that ended on September
27. The CWRC took its decision at its meeting on September 26. However, the Siddaramaiahled Karnataka government has decided to
file review petitions before the Supreme Court and
CWMA on Saturday. It has also decided to form an advisory panel to collect data and provide advice to the
government on the issue. After the Friday’s meeting, which lasted nearly
two hours, CWMA chairman Saumitra Kumar Haldar told The Hindu from New Delhi that barring Karnataka, representatives of the other basin States joined the discussion
through videoconference. As for Tamil Nadu, the
officiating Principal Secretary for Water Resources,
K. Manivasan, attended the meeting online, while
Cauvery Technical Cell chairperson R. Subramanian was personally present in New Delhi.
As in the past, there was an intense exchange of
views between Tamil Nadu and Karnataka. While the former wanted continuous
release of water and demanded 12,500 cusecs, the
latter referred to difficulties in continuing with the
supply.
Karnataka also pointed out that it was only depen-
dent upon the southwest monsoon, which played
truant this year, but Tamil Nadu could fall back on
northeast monsoon which would set in during the
third or fourth week of October.
According to the data of the Central Water
Commission available up to September 26 this
year, the realisation of the Cauvery water at Bili-
gundulu this month was 11.8 tmc ft and since June
1, the total was 43.73 tmc ft. In a normal year, the
State should have got nearly 75 tmc ft more as of
now.
As on Friday morning, four reservoirs of Karna-
taka in the Cauvery basin had a combined gross
storage of 59.65 tmc ft. As per the latest direction
of the CWMA, Karnataka will have to release total-
ly 5.38 tmc ft till October 15.
Nothing on factfinding panel
Asked whether either of the States raised the issue
of sending a factfinding committee to ascertain
the level of distress in the Cauvery basin, Mr. Hal-
dar replied in the negative.
A similar panel was constituted by the Union
government on October 4, 2016, on the direction
of the Supreme Court.
After visiting these two States, the panel sub-
mitted its report on October 17 that year. In its
conclusions, the panel did not quantify how much
water should be released by Karnataka to Tamil
Nadu.
But it indicated that while Karnataka should ap-
preciate the matter of protection of established ir-
rigation in Tamil Nadu and Puducherry, the lower
basin State should factor in the aspirations of the
upper riparian State for developing its network.
Source; The Hindu