Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin on Monday condemned Karnataka’s stand on releasing Cauvery water. Tamil Nadu’s Minister for Water Resources Durai Murugan will chair an all-party meeting in the Secretariat on Tuesday to decide about the next course of action on the issue, according to a release.
Chief Minister Stalin citing various reports said that as of July 15, the total water storage in four major reservoirs of Karnataka stood at 75.586 tmc. However, the water storage in Mettur Dam is only 13.808 tmc. In this situation, the government of Karnataka refusing to release water is an act against farmers of Tamil Nadu.
The State government has also written to the Cauvery Water Management Authority (CWMA) urging it to implement the directive of the Cauvery Water Regulatory Committee (CWRC) to Karnataka to release 1 tmc ft of water in the Cauvery to Tamil Nadu. Not releasing water to Tamil Nadu was ‘contempt’ of the direction of the Supreme Court, he said.
In the all-party meeting convened by the Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Sunday, the State government said it would only release 8,000 cusecs of water per day instead of 1 tmc per day, which is 11,500 cusecs.
In a typical year, the mandate requires the release of 9.4 tmc ft in June and 31.24 tmc ft in July, totalling 40.43 tmc ft. Currently, over 5 tmc ft of water has already been released, said Chief Minister Siddaramaiah. If there is no rain they will minimise release of water and file an appeal, he said.