Heeding to a request of the State government submitted to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who is the Chairman of the Cauvery River Authority (CRA), a Central study team comprising several top officials, including D.V. Singh, Secretary, Union Ministry of Water Resources, and Director of the Central Water Commission, has arrived in Bangalore to undertake field visits to the Cauvery basin region on Friday.
Guided tour
Sources in the State government told The Hindu that top officials of the State Ministry of Water Resources will take the Central officials on a guided tour of the Mysore and Mandya districts. A detailed report will also be made over to them on the availability of water in the four Cauvery basin reservoirs —the Kabini, Krishnaraja Sagar, Hemavathi and the Harangi — and the extent of sowing undertaken and the water requirements. As such, the drinking water requirement of Bangalore city alone is estimated at around 20 tmcft. It is another matter that the CWC, which directly monitors the flow of water to Tamil Nadu (Biligundlu measuring station), is fully aware of the facts.
Storage drops
In the meantime, the authorities here filed an interlocutory application before the Supreme Court on Thursday seeking a review of the order of the CRA, which said that the State should release water at the rate of 9,000 cusecs a day (roughly around 0.8 tmcft of water) until October 15. As such, Karnataka began releasing between 9,000 to 10,000 cusecs a day from September 12, when the apex court directed that the State should release the given quantum until the meeting of the CRA was held.
The present storage in the four reservoirs is stated to have dropped to around 65 tmcft following the continuous release of water to the lower riparian State of Tamil Nadu.
The visit by the officials from Delhi is expected to help the Union government (Cauvery Monitoring Committee) to place its findings before the CRA — on the action taken on the orders (September 19 meeting), the ground realities at the present juncture and whether the order could be moderated, if need be. The whole process is, however, time consuming and much water would have been let out by then.
Unanimous opposition
The three main political parties in the State — the Bharatiya Janata Party, Congress and the Janata Dal (Secular) — are opposed to the release of water. The Cauvery basin districts is the heartland of the JD(S) and its elected representatives have threatened to resign en masse from the Legislative Assembly (26 members) if the release of the Cauvery waters is not stopped forthwith.
Directions have been issued by the State Home Department to the Mandya and Mysore district authorities to provide adequate security cover to the Central team of officials during the field visit. Mandya and Mysore, apart from Bangalore, are the centre of protests against the release of water. Farmers in Mandya, where the Krishnaraja Sagar reservoir is located, have commenced a relay hunger strike, a day after their attempt to lay siege to the dam.
Itinerary
Mysore Special Correspondent reports:
As per the tentative itinerary issued by the Cauvery Neeravari Nigama Ltd, the team will depart from Bangalore at 9 a.m. on Friday, reach Maddur at 11 a.m. to inspect the Krishnaraja Sagar command area. It will depart from KRS to K.R. Pet via Pandavapura and inspect the Hemagiri Anecut command, Madanagere anecut command, and Hemavathy project, Hemavathy Left Bank Canal achkat and proceed to Mysore. It will inspect CDS anecut and Virija anecut command area. On Saturday, the team will inspect Rajaparameshwari anecut command and Kabini achkat area in Muguru hobli, Hullahalli anecut command and Kabini achkat at Nanjangud. On Sunday, it will inspect Harangi command area in Hunsur and K.R. Nagar, Hemavathy command area, SRD anecut command, Hemavathy project command area in Channarayapatana, before leaving for Bangalore.