Accusing Tamil Nadu of making a petition before the Supreme Court seeking release of its share of Cauvery water on the basis of a normal water year’s statistics though Karnataka is reeling under "severe distress", an all-party meeting convened by Chief Minister Siddaramaiah here on Saturday decided to place ground-level realities before the Supreme Court.
"Tamil Nadu has not informed the Supreme Court about the facts such as Karnataka facing severe distress leading to its reservoirs in the Cauvery basin receiving only 55 per cent of the normal inflow. We have decided to convince the Supreme Court about Karnataka’s distress by providing details regarding the ground level position. Our legal team will take up the issue before the Apex Court," Mr. Siddaramaiah told media persons after the all-party meeting.
"Tamil Nadu has sought 50 tmcft of water in its petition filed before the Supreme Court on the basis of normal water year’s statistics. But the ground reality is totally different as it is a severe distress year for Karnataka. The total storage of only 51 tmcft as against the capacity of 104 tmcft from all the four reservoirs of Krishnaraja Sagar, Kabini, Hemavathi and Harangi in the Cauvery basin due to deficient rainfall," he said.
"Of the present storage of 51 tmcft, we need a minimum of 40 tmcft for taking care of drinking water requirements of different towns and cities," he said, while pointing out that Tamil Nadu was actually seeking water for irrigating its samba crop. In addition to taking care of drinking water requirements, Karnataka had to protect the standing crops of its farmers, he noted, while making it clear that the state did not have adequate quantum of water to meet Tamil Nadu’s demands.
Mr. Siddaramaiah explained that cumulative inflow to all the four reservoirs in the Cauvery basis stood at a poor 108 tmcft till August 24 as against the long-time average of 195.25 tmcft. This would amount to only 55 per cent of the average inflow, he said.
He also denied reports that State legal team had asked Karnataka to release four to five tmcft of water to Tamil Nadu and said already the State had released 29 tmcft of water to the neighbouring state. "As on today, Mettur dam in Tamil Nadu has a total storage of 34 tmcft of water," he said.
The Chief Minister said the all-party meeting which was attended by top leaders, including Union Ministers H.N. Ananth Kumar and D.V. Sadananda Gowda, Leader of Opposition in Parliament M. Mallikarjuna Kharge, former chief ministers M. Veerappa Moily and H.D. Kumaraswamy, and leaders of the Opposition of both Assembly and Council Jagadish Shettar and K.S. Eshwarappa, decided to stand by the government’s decision on the Cauvery issue.
