BENGALURU: Soon after the Supreme Court upheld the Cauvery Water Management Authority (CWMA) and the Cauvery Water Regulation Committee’s (CWRC) order directing the Karnataka Government to release 5,000 cusecs of water daily to Tamil Nadu for the next 15 days, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and Deputy CM DK Shivakumar held a marathon meeting with the state’s legal team and officials in New Delhi.
According to informed sources, the duo has decided to take a final call on the state’s next course of action in the Cabinet meeting on Friday evening. It will also discuss ways to tackle the situation in the Cauvery basin as farmers and various organisations have launched protests against the release of water to TN.
At the meeting, the leaders discussed the Mekedatu balancing reservoir project which is listed for hearing in the apex court in October. Implementation of the project will resolve the Cauvery river water sharing issue between the two states, a senior leader said. Since no authorities have arrived at a distress formula, the project will help to resolve the issue, Siddaramaiah maintained.
Options such as inviting CWMA and CWRC experts to witness the ground reality as the authorities take stock of the distress faced by both the states every 15 days were discussed. Since the SC’s order is binding, there is a no way other than following the same, a leader suggested, said sources.
Earlier in the day, an all-party delegation of Karnataka leaders, including Siddaramaiah, Union Ministers Pralhad Joshi and Shobha Karandlaje met Union Jal Shakti minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat. Siddaramaiah briefed the minister about the distress Karnataka was facing owing to a poor monsoon.
“We have informed the Union Minister about our plight. His response was positive. We have also asked the Prime Minister for his time. We request the PM to intervene and summon the representatives of the four Cauvery basin stakeholder states and resolve the issue,” Siddaramaiah and Shivakumar said in a joint press conference after meeting the minister.
“But we have convinced the Union Minister that there is only 51 tmcft of water from our four reservoirs. We drew the attention of the minister that the lowest rainfall in 123 years fell in the months of August and September. The inflow of all the four reservoirs has come down from 11,000 to 8,000 cusecs,” they said.