Various farmers’ associations in the State have welcomed the direction of the Supreme Court to Karnataka to release 9,000 cusecs (cubic feet per second) water to Tamil Nadu for samba cultivation.
Mahadhanapuram V. Rajaram, working president of the Cauvery Delta Farmers’ Welfare Association, welcoming the direction of the Supreme Court, thanked Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who is the chairman of the Cauvery River Authority for having originally directed Karnataka to release 9,000 cusecs. He also congratulated Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa for her “indefatigable” efforts to get water to protect the samba crop and the farmers of the delta region. This was the best that could have happened to Tamil Nadu under the current circumstances. “Though our requirement is much more, it is imperative that we shared the distress situation”.
He lamented that it had become virtually a “monotonous regularity” that Tamil Nadu had been forced to move the Supreme Court to get water from Karnataka every year and the upper riparian State had hardly bothered to worry about its “lower riparian brethren”.
Refuse release
“With as much as 75 per cent of the storage in its reservoirs, when Karnataka refuses to release any water to Tamil Nadu, it is not only illogical but also inhuman”, he observed.
Karnataka had always been treating Tamil Nadu as a “drainage” and had been releasing water only when its reservoirs surplussed, he pointed out.
Aarupathi R. Kalyanam, general secretary of the Federation of Farmers’ Associations of Delta Districts, said “the Supreme Court is the only ray of hope,” for Tamil Nadu farmers.
Unlawful activities
He alleged that Karnataka government is a “silent spectator” to all unlawful activities conducted by various associations, he added.
V. Duraimanickam, veteran CPI leader and State general secretary of the Tamil Nadu Vivasayigal Sangham, while welcoming the direction of the Supreme Court, said, “9,000 cusecs is not enough and the Central Government should try its best to get more water for Tamil Nadu.”
“It is the duty of the Central Government and the Supreme Court to get additional quantum of water to save the samba crop”, he asserted.
He also deplored the “adamant attitude” of the Karnataka Government in rejecting the Prime Minister’s earlier direction to release water for Tamil Nadu.
