The Supreme Court on Wednesday, in an interim order, directed Karnataka to release 10,000 cusecs of Cauvery water everyday to Tamil Nadu and asked the Cauvery Monitoring Committee (CMC) to hold a meeting either on Thursday if possible or on Friday to decide the requirements of both the states.
A bench comprising Justice D K Jain and Justice Madan B Lokur said that its order will continue till the CMC files its report and posted the matter to Monday for further hearing.
The release of 10,000 cusecs a day works out to a little less than 1 tmc ft (thousand million cubic feet) of water a day. Eleven thousand cusecs would amount to 1 tmc ft. This, however, seems to be a far cry from what Tamil Nadu had demanded, which is around 30 tmc ft.
Justice Jain, who dictated the order, said that the CMC would find out the water requirements for crops in Tamil Nadu and Karnataka for December and the report would be submitted to the authority concerned.
The bench also asked Additional Solicitor General Harin Raval to take instructions from the Union Government on how much time it will take for the final decision of the Cauvery Tribunal to be notified.
The bench said that its immediate concern was to save the crops. “Both states are distressed and we have to see that we save crops. We will keep our eyes open to the requirement of both the states and find out a practical solution,” the bench said.