Tamil Nadu will insist at Monday's meeting of the Monitoring Committee to be held in New Delhi that Karnataka should stick to the monthly schedule of Cauvery water release as per the Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal's interim order.
A senior government official says though the committee was to hold meetings once in three months, the previous meeting was held about 10 months ago.
The State will also reiterate Chief Minister Jayalalithaa's complaint against the Karnataka on the unjust utilisation of water for summer irrigation from February to May by depleting the storage in its four major reservoirs.
A week ago, the Chief Minister wrote to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, requesting him to convene a meeting of the Cauvery River Authority.
As on date, the Mettur dam, lifeline of irrigation in the Cauvery basin of Tamil Nadu, had about 41.47 thousand million cubic feet (tmcft) against the capacity of 93.47 tmcft. The same day last year, the storage was 84 tmcft.
A perusal of the data on the monthly inflow of water in the last 20 years reveals that the realisation of water at Mettur, the reference point under the interim order, was invariably much less during June-September than the prescribed quantities for the period.
Of the total of 205 tmcft to be released by Karnataka to Tamil Nadu in a water year from June to May, the first four months account for 137 tmcft, the break-up of which is as follows: June – 10.16 tmc ft; July – 42.76 tmcft; August – 54.72 tmcft and September – 29.36 tmcft.
It is during this month that farmers in Tamil Nadu grow kuruvai crop and, as cited by the Tribunal in its clarification of April 1992 quoting Karnataka's petition, water should be made available during the period in which it is required for growing crops.
All these aspects have been considered before shaping the position of the State, another official says.
On Friday, she held a meeting with senior officials at the Secretariat and made a detailed review regarding the storage of water at Mettur and commencement of supply for irrigation.
