T.N. got more water, says Siddaramaiah

'Karnataka complied with the orders of the Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal, and Tamil Nadu received 60 tmcft of water in excess last year'

The outflow from the Krishnaraja Sagar was increased after the dam reached its full reservoir level on Wednesday. PHOTO: ANURAG BASAVARAJ

Chief Minister Siddaramaiah has said that Karnataka had complied with the orders of the Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal, and Tamil Nadu had received 60 tmcft of water in excess last year.

He was speaking at Krishnaraja Sagar (KRS), near Srirangapatna in the district, after offering ‘bagina’ to the Cauvery on Wednesday.

“We had to release only 197 tmcft of water to Tamil Nadu as per the final award, but Tamil Nadu got more than 260 tmcft last year,” he said.

No dispute

There was no rain in the Cauvery catchment area in June. The rate of inflow into the KRS was very poor till July 10. However, the monsoon picked up and the reservoir level rose from 82 ft. to 124 ft. since July 10, he said.

Every year the water dispute would start even before the KRS touched the full reservoir level (FRL). But, the KRS had filled up owing to copious rainfall in the Cauvery catchment area. Therefore, there would be no dispute [over Cauvery waters] between Karnataka and Tamil Nadu this year, he said.

Irrigation projects

Emphasising the need on completing all irrigation projects in the State, the Chief Minister promised that the State government would complete the Cauvery, Hemavati, Krishna, Godavari, Tungabhadra and other projects.

“We are committed to completing all irrigation projects and have allocated Rs. 50,000 crore for it,” Mr. Siddaramaiah said.

According to him, the government would modernise several canals in the Cauvery basin at a cost of Rs. 400 crore.

Housing Minister M.H. Ambareesh, Water Resources Minister M.B. Patil, Deputy Commissioner M.N. Ajay Nagabhushan, Mandya Zilla Panchayat Chief Executive Officer Rohini Sindhuri, Pandavapura Assistant Commissioner B. Vani, MLAs M.K. Somashekar, D.C. Thammanna, P.M. Narendraswamy, K.S. Puttannaiah, A.B. Ramesh Babu Bandisidde Gowda and others accompanied the Chief Minister.

With the water-level in the KRS reaching the FRL of 124.8 ft., officials of the Cauvery Neeravari Nigam Ltd. (CNNL) on Wednesday night significantly increased the outflow from the reservoir.

“We have stepped up the outflow at the rate of 41,073 cusecs,” an officer at the CNNL told The Hindu .

Meanwhile, the Mandya district administration has sounded a flood alert in areas downstream of the KRS and has advised people to move to safer places as the Irrigation Department has increased the outflow.