Cauvery SC hearing: Karnataka to stand by its Assembly decision

Next hearing of the Supreme Court in Cauvery water sharing will be held on Friday and Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah has said that Karnataka will use the Cauvery water for state’s drinking purpose only as decided in the Assembly on September 23.

The meeting convened by the Centre on the direction of the Supreme Court yielded no result.

In the Centre-mediated meeting, Tamil Nadu demanded that Karnataka release 5,000 cusecs of water every day. But Karnataka’s demand was to form an expert committee to discover the ground realities of the Cauvery basin.

Tamil Nadu representatives demanded that Karnataka release the required quantity of water first and the expert committee be constituted later if necessary.

Immediately after the meeting, CM Siddaramaiah spoke to former Prime Minister HD Deve Gowda over the phone to ask his opinion on TN’s demand. Sources said that Gowda too asked Siddaramaiah to stick to his demands.

Thus, not really mediating, Uma Bharti pleaded both states to share 'happiness' through water and asked leaders to maintain peace. “Solve the problem amicably,” she said.

The Supreme Court in its verdict on Tuesday directed Karnataka to release 6,000 cusecs of water per day for three days to Tamil Nadu and fixed the date for next hearing on the issue to September 30.

But Karnataka held an all-party meeting attended by JD(S) and BJP leaders and decided to stick to its Assembly decision of not releasing any water. 

• Cauvery row
• Karnataka
• Assembly election
• water for drinking only
• SC verdict
• Uma Bharti meeting
• Siddaramaiah