The government is making efforts to secure Tamil Nadu’s rightful share of Cauvery water from Karnataka and the Supreme Court will ensure that required amount of water will be made available to the State, Chief Minister Jayalalithaa said here on Friday.
Replying to a debate on a special call attention motion on the Cauvery issue, the Chief Minister said her government had taken several steps to secure the State’s rights at any cost with a view to protecting the [long-term] samba crop, given the fact that the [short-term] kuruvai crop was adversely affected in the State.
“Due to my persistent efforts and the Supreme Court’s intervention, Karnataka has been compelled to release some amount of water to Tamil Nadu.”
Giving an account of the history of the Cauvery dispute, she referred to recent developments and explained why her government had approached the Supreme Court on many occasions this year.
During its last meeting on October 31, 2012, the Cauvery Monitoring Committee [headed by Union Water Resources Secretary with Chief Secretaries of all Cauvery Basin States as members] directed Karnataka to release 6.09 thousand million cubic feet (tmc ft).
This included a shortfall of 2.15 tmc ft which arose as a result of the Karnataka government not releasing fully the quantity of 8.85 tmcft during October 16 and 31.
The Committee decided that the shortfall should be made good by November 4. The remaining quantity of 3.94 tmc ft should be released between November 1 and 15. Besides, it stated that it would decide, in the next meeting slated for November 15, on all demands of Tamil Nadu, as per the court order, and the future release of water to the State, the Chief Minister informed the House.
