The annual phase of acrimony between Tamil Nadu and Karnataka over the release of Cauvery water must end (“ >Karnataka begins Cauvery water release to Tamil Nadu ”, Sept. 8). The need of the hour is for a face-to-face meeting between the Chief Ministers to defuse the crisis. The initial reluctance shown by the Karnataka government to comply with the Supreme Court verdict is a grim pointer to the potential of such issues to snowball into a crisis if sectarian and parochial sentiments are not kept under check. Competitive jingoism by fringe elements to extract political mileage needs to be crushed. The lasting and permanent solution to such recurring disputes lies in the interlinking of rivers and nationalisation of dams.
B. Suresh Kumar,
Coimbatore
