With the storage in the four Cauvery reservoir basins recording an increase by around 4 tmcft since the time the Karnataka legislature passed a resolution, some legal experts have suggested that the State government could now release water at 6,000 cusecs for three days as directed by the Supreme Court on Tuesday.
Release of water for three days could turn out to be advantageous for Karnataka as it would not only become adherence to the Supreme Court’s recent direction but will also remove an impression created against the State that it was “unreasonably” disobeying the apex court’s order, said the former Advocate General B.V. Acharya.
Also, Mr. Acharya said the government, by releasing water, would not be committing any breach of privilege of the resolution passed by the State legislature as the resolution was passed on September 23 when the total storage of water in the four reservoirs was at 27.6 tmcft, which the legislature considered as an “alarmingly low level” for restricting use of stored water only for drinking needs of the State. Total storage in Harangi, Hemavati, KRS, and Kabini reservoirs as on September 28 was 31.29 tmcft.
He was also of the view that release of water at this point would not only add credential to the government’s intention by demonstrating that the State was not averse to releasing water but was constrained to “disobey” the court’s order to protect the interests of people as the order passed by the apex court on September 20 was “impractical” to implement owing to distress situation.
Besides, Mr. Acharya said release of water at 6,000 cusecs for three days would also come to the aid of the Karnataka government when its Chief Minister sits across the table with Tamil Nadu Minister and officials during the Thursday’s meeting convened by the Union government for resolving the issue as per the direction of the Supreme Court.
‘By releasing water, the govt. will not be committing any breach of privilege of the resolution’
