says 'no water'(Eds: Updating with Siddaramaiah's reax)New Delhi/Chennai, Jan 13 (PTI) The Tamil Nadu governmenttoday demanded Karnataka to release at least 15 tmcft ofCauvery water for saving its crops, but the neigbouring statemaintained that it did not have enough water.
In a letter to his Karnataka counterpart Siddaramaiah,Tamil Nadu Chief Minister K Palaniswami demanded an immediaterelease of 7 tmcft of water and the balance within a fortnightfrom the existing storage.
As per the 2007 order of the Cauvery Water DisputesTribunal, Tamil Nadu has to receive 192 tmcft (thousandmillion cubic feet) of water every year as its share from theCauvery river. It has only received 111.647 tmcft as onJanuary 9 at Biligundulu as against the due of 179.871 tmcft,leaving a deficit of 68.224 tmcft.
When asked about the Tamil Nadu government's demand,Siddaramaiah said, "We do not have water. How can we supply tothem? It is not possible to release water to Tamil Nadu".
The Karnataka chief minister was in the national capitalto attend a meeting called by Congress president Rahul Gandhi.
The hearing on the Cauvery water dispute is scheduled fornext month.
"We expect a favourable order," Siddaramaiah added.
Last week, the Supreme Court had indicated that it woulddeliver within a month its verdict on the decades-old Cauverywater dispute between Tamil Nadu and Karnataka, saying enoughconfusion had been created on it for over two decades.
In the letter, Palaniswami said there was a "deficit" inrealisation of its share of Cauvery water this year (2017-18).
He said the storage in Mettur reservoir in Salemdistrict, which caters to the Cauvery delta region, as onJanuary 12 was a "meagre" 21.27 tmcft even as the utilisablestorage there was 16.27 tmcft.
This was "grossly inadequate" to meet the irrigationneeds of standing crops and drinking water needs during summermonths, he said.
The AIADMK leader said the crop season in Karnataka wasalready over and that its gross storage in four majorreservoirs in Cauvery basin stood at about 49.82 tmcft as onJanuary 12.
"After reserving the minimum needs of drinking watersupply and perennial crops, Karnataka can release at least15 tmcft to Tamil Nadu to make up a part of the shortfall," hesaid in the letter.
This water is required to meet the crucial needs of thestanding crops in the Cauvery delta, the Tamil Nadu chiefminister asserted.
He also urged Siddaramaiah to instruct the officersconcerned to release 7 tmcft of water immediately and thebalance within a fortnight from the existing storage forsaving the standing crops.
This should be done taking into consideration the plightof a large number of farmers of the delta who depend on thesuccess of their crop to meet their livelihood, he said.
Extending 'Makara Sankaranthi' greetings to Siddaramiahand to the people of Karnataka, Palaniswami said that in this'irrigation year' (2017-18), Mettur reservoir could be openedonly on October 2, 2017 as against the normal date of June 12.
Though the Samba crop cultivation commenced soon afterand the rainfall due to the north east monsoon was helpful inthe beginning, its intensity became heavy and "destructive" byOctober end last year, he said.
"The young crop could not withstand the onslaught of suchrainfall and got damaged to a considerable extent. The farmersof the Cauvery delta had to replant the crop, as a result ofwhich the crop period got extended".
These standing crops need irrigation in the criticalstage of crop growth maturity, namely, "milky and dough"stage, for which the irrigation has to be extended beyondJanuary, 2018, he said.
"At this instance, I would like to point out that thefarmers of Cauvery delta lost their crop last year, 2016-17,due to deficit inflows into Mettur reservoir," Palaniswamiadded. PTI SA/LUXSRY.
This is unedited, unformatted feed from the Press Trust of India wire.