A three-judge Bench of the Supreme Court headed by Justice B.R. Gavai will on August 25 hear Tamil Nadu’s plea for the release of its allotment of Cauvery river water for the month of August. The other judges on the Bench are Justices P.S. Narasimha and P.K. Mishra.
Tamil Nadu has moved the Supreme Court seeking a direction to Karnataka to forthwith release 24,000 cusecs of Cauvery water from its reservoirs at Billigundulu for the remaining period of the month, starting from August 14.
The State said the release of water was a dire necessity to meet the pressing demands of standing crops.
Tamil Nadu has urged the court to direct Karnataka to ensure the stipulated releases for the month of September, 2023 (36.76 TMC — thousand million cubic feet) as per the Cauvery Tribunal award as modified by the Supreme Court in 2018.
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The State said Karnataka should make good the shortfall of 28.849 TMC water during the current irrigation year for the period between June 1 and July 31.
It asked the court to direct the Cauvery Water Management Authority (CWMA) to ensure that the directions issued to Karnataka to release water to Tamil Nadu were “fully implemented and the stipulated monthly releases during the remaining period of the current water year are fully given effect to by the State of Karnataka”.
Tamil Nadu said Karnataka had to ensure to make good the deficit in water supply from Billigundulu as on August 9, which was 37.971 TMC in addition to the demand of around 24,000 cusecs, in the month of August.
A direction was given to Karnataka on August 10 to release from its reservoirs 15,000 cusecs at Billigundulu on August 11 for 15 days.
“Unfortunately, even this quantum of water was arbitrarily reduced to 10,000 cusecs by the CWMA in its 22nd meeting held on August 11 at the instance of Karnataka. Regretfully, even this amount of 10,000 cusecs to be ensured at Billigundulu by releasing such quantum of water from the KRS and Kabini reservoirs has not been complied with by Karnataka,” the Tamil Nadu application has said.
