The Tamil Nadu government has again urged Union Water Resources Secretary Umesh Narayan Panjiar to ask Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who is heading the Cauvery River Water Authority (CRA), to immediately convene a CRA meeting as Karnataka has not released the entire quantity of water due to Tamil Nadu from Cauvery river this agriculture season.
Tamil Nadu's Cauvery Technical Cell Chairman R. Subramanian, who attended the meeting of the monitoring committee of CRA, headed by Union Water Resources Secretary Panjiar, which was held here on Tuesday, pointed out that Karnataka was yet to release 60 tmc ft of water to Tamil Nadu so far for this 2010-11 agriculture season. It should at least release 26 tmc ft immediately to save the standing kuruvai (short term) paddy crops. Karnataka representatives, who attended the meeting, said there was deficit rainfall in the State and they were hopeful of getting more rain in the coming days. They promised to bridge the deficit at the earliest once they received rains.
Kerala representatives too participated and there was no representation from the Puducherry government.
Mr. Panjiar told The Hindu that the quantum of water to be released by Karnataka to Tamil Nadu was not fixed at the meeting. Similarly, no deadline was fixed.
However, Karnataka was asked to meet the deficit at the earliest. About convening the CRA meeting, he said Tamil Nadu had been asking for such a meeting for quite some time.
