BENGALURU: Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar, who also holds the water resources portfolio, on Thursday appealed to Union Jal Shakti Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat to ask the Cauvery Water Management Authority (CWMA) to consider Karnataka’s pleadings and review the decision of Cauvery Water Regulation Committee (CWRC). The CWRC has directed the state to release 5000 cusecs each day to Tamil Nadu for 15 days.
Shivakumar met Shekhawat during an international conference on Dam Safety in Jaipur and handed over Chief Minister Siddaramaiah’s letter to him.
The decision of the CWRC needing Kamataka to release water from KRS and Kabini, put together, so as to realise 5000 cusecs at Biligundlu for the next 15 days cannot be practically implemented without endangering the interests of the farmers for irrigation and human and livestock depending upon the Cauvery River system for drinking water, the CM stated in the letter.
The CM requested the minister to ask the CWMA to consider the pleadings of Karnataka and to review the decision of CWRC which has directed Karnataka to release 5000 cusecs for the next 15 days so that Karnataka is relieved of the burden and to safeguard the interests of the farmers and people in the drought-affected year.
Opposition BJP and JDS leaders have urged the Karnataka government not to release water to Tamil Nadu and to protect the interests of the state farmers.