Can’t release water to Tamil Nadu, says CM Siddaramaiah

Team Udayavani, Apr 3, 2017, 12:49 PM IST

Bengaluru: Karnataka chief minister Siddaramaiah on Sunday reiterated the state’s inability to release Cauvery water to neighbouring Tamil Nadu, saying there was no sufficient water in the state’s reservoirs at present.

An official delegation from Tamil Nadu on Saturday held meetings with Karnataka chief secretary Subhash Khuntia and other state government officials in Bengaluru, with a request to release 3 tmcft of Cauvery water on humanitarian grounds.

“Their (Tamil Nadu) officials had come… they have had meeting with our chief secretary. We have explained to them that there is no water in our Cauvery reservoirs. We have told them that if there are rains and we get water, we will give for drinking,” Siddaramaiah told reporters.

He said “now, we don’t have water to give them.”

A Supreme Court bench headed by Justice Dipak Misra on March 21 said all interim orders of releasing 2,000 cusecs of Cauvery water by Karnataka would continue to be in force till further orders.

Following this, Karnataka had expressed its inability in supplying Cauvery water to Tamil Nadu in line with the apex court’s directive, saying the state itself is facing a shortage of drinking water.

Meanwhile, former chief minister SM Krishna,who recently joined the BJP,termed as “correct” the state’s stand not to release water to Tamil Nadu, citing the reason that water level in the reservoirs was just enough for drinking water needs.

Noting that Tamil Nadu’s main intention was to get the Cauvery Management Board created, former chief minister and JD(S) leader HD Kumaraswamy hit out at the state government and the ruling BJP at the Centre and its MPs for not taking the issue “seriously”.

Pointing at a protest by Tamil Nadu farmers in Delhi, he said, “the central government can take decision at any time… they (Congress and BJP) are more interested in winning the polls (by-polls).”

The Supreme Court will on July 11 commence the final hearing of the appeals filed by Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Kerala against the 2007 award of the Cauvery Water Dispute Tribunal on sharing of water for 15 consecutive workings days.