Chief Minister Siddaramaiah condemned the act of the Tamil Nadu government’s decision of approaching the Supreme Court seeking around Rs 2,500 crore from Karnataka for loss of crops due to not releasing Cauvery water during the irrigation year 2012-13.
Siddaramiah said, “As per the interim award of Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal we had released the water to Tamil Nadu even though we were facing acute shortage of water. Our Cauvery, Kabini, Harangi rivers have dried up, people of the state are suffering due to shortage of drinking water. At this stage Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu is raising disputes without any reason.
He added the state will also approach the SC after consulting legal experts and follow the guidelines to fight this case in the interest of the people and state.
HDK slams Jaya
Terming Tamil Nadu CM Jayalalithaa’s statement demanding Karnataka to pay a compensation of `2,500 crore towards crop loss following the delay in release of water as ‘childish’, leader of Opposition in the state Legislative Assembly H D Kumaraswamy said such demands should not be entertained.
He told reporters here on Thursday that it has become a habit for the TN government to pick up quarrel unnecessarily with Karnataka.
Blaming the TN government for crop loss to the tune of `2,500 crore, he said when they had prior information about failure of monsoon why did they not ask farmers to grow crops in advance.
“Holding Karnataka responsible for everything was not a good trend. I advise Jayalalithaa to file an application before ‘Varuna’ (the rain god) seeking crop compensation. The constitutionally created bodies should not entertain such applications,” he said.