Cauvery row: Karnataka to release 36,000 cusecs to Tamil Nadu

In a U-turn, Karnataka today told the Supreme Court that it will abide by the September 30 verdict and release 36000 cusecs water to Tamil Nadu by October 6. Post that, according to reports, Karnataka has agreed to release 1,500 cusecs of water every day from October 7 to 18, till the Supreme Court takes up main hearing of the Cauvery issue.

 

Karnataka advocate Fali S Nariman has assured the Supreme Court bench - consisting of Justices Deepak Misra and UU Lalith - that the state will release 1,000 cusecs of water till October 18 to Tamil Nadu.Nariman was answering the SC’s question of how much water Karnataka can release to Tamil Nadu from October 7 to October 18.

 

Regarding constituting the Cauvery Management Board, Justice Deepak Misra said that the court had just advised the Centre to form it and the final decision lies with the Assembly.

 

So far, Karnataka has officially released 6,856 cusecs of water to the farmers of Mandya and Mysuru, following the unanimous decision was taken in the Joint Assembly yesterday to release water for irrigation. Currently, the KRS dam has 15.7 TMC water, and the inflow is 977 cusecs.

 

Therefore, in summation, Karnataka will be releasing water to Tamil Nadu as the Court had ordered it to do, though the official reason is that the water is being released for Karnataka's farmers. 

 

The news got a mixed response from the farmers. Some have expressed happiness about water being released to them for irrigation. But at the same time, some farmers and leaders are staging a protest in front of the water being released to Tamil Nadu.

 

To avert any violent situation, the police have been deployed in and around the KRS dam.

 

Cauvery Management Board

 

Meanwhile, the court has asked Nariman to discuss releasing water to Tamil Nadu from October 7 to 18 till the main hearing of the Cauvery issue.

 

“The term of the Supervisory Committee is not yet over. Let the Supervisory Committee conduct a study of the ground realities in both the states. Then the Court can decide based on the facts whether the Karnataka still has to release water,” Nariman added.

 

Speaking about the Centre’s plea Advocate General Mukul Rohtagi asked for more time to constitute Cauvery Water Management Board.

 

Mukul Rohatgi said that “We do not have any problem in forming the Cauvery Board. But we cannot do it right away. Let the SC verdict on the issue come out, and we will decide based on that verdict about constituting the Board.”