BENGALURU: Deputy CM DK Shivakumar will visit New Delhi on Thursday along with a team of irrigation department officials to hold consultations with the state’s legal team a day ahead of the Supreme Court hearing Tamil Nadu’s plea seeking direction to Karnataka to release 24,000 cusecs of water daily. The three-judge bench of the Supreme Court will hear TN’s plea on Friday.
“I am going to Delhi to meet our legal team and discuss the Cauvery water issue as the Supreme Court will hear TN’s plea on Friday. Tamil Nadu had demanded 24,000 cusecs of water each day. Our officials’ argued ably and said that we can release 3,000 cusecs. Finally, they (CWRC and CWMA) reduced it to 5,000 cusecs. I am going to discuss how to present our argument in the next hearing,” Shivakumar said, adding he will also discuss how much water Karnataka can reduce (the water released to TN) by presenting the present situation prevalent in the state.
On allegations made by former CM Basavaraj Bommai that Karnataka should file a writ petition in the apex court, Shivakumar said, “We have our own calculations and have the key to our dams, we will not give it to anyone else. What to do if the keys are taken from us? We have already given water twice for the interest of our farmers. Bommai had to do his own politics and spoke like that. A former BJP irrigation minister said that water should not have been released to TN. But what did he do when he was in power? What happened when Nage Gowda was the Irrigation Minister... What happened when Deve Gowda was PM... this has been going on for ages,” he elaborated.
The SC on August 25 refused to pass any order on TN seeking 24,000 cusecs citing, “We do not possess any expertise on the matter”. The Cauvery Water Regulation Committee on August 28 directed Karnataka to release 5,000 cusecs to TN for the next 15 days - up to September 12. Karnataka had agreed to give 3,000 cusecs citing a deficit in rainfall this year. The Cauvery Water Management Authority also upheld the CWRC’s order on August 29.