Meet came close to deal, but politics played spoilsport

Oppn leaders advised CM against water release

Karnataka and Tamil Nadu came close to clinching a deal at the meeting on the Cauvery row here on Thursday. But politics seems to have played spoilsport.

Sources closely involved in the deliberations told DH that the two states were close to agreeing to a solution to end the impasse for the year, which has arisen out of deficit rainfall in the Cauvery basin.

As both the states were firm on their stand at the meeting, Union Minister Uma Bharati, in a bid to break the deadlock, asked them to sit and discuss separately, whether they could alter their positions on water release.

She asked the Karnataka team, led by Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, to use her chambers on the second floor at the Shram Shakti Bhavan and suggested the Tamil Nadu team to hold discussions in the conference hall in the first floor.

Siddaramaiah and his officials discussed the suggestion from Tamil Nadu that came through water resources ministry officials that Karnataka should release at least 5,000 cusecs every day for 10 days. The argument was that it would be sufficient for the samba crop as the North East Monsoon was expected to set in within two weeks.

Karnataka officials felt that the state could agree to release 3,000 cusecs for 15 days. It was acceptable to Siddaramaiah as he could avoid facing the possible wrath of the Supreme Court, when the issue comes up for hearing on Friday.

The court had ordered Karnataka to release 6,000 cusecs of water for three days from Wednesday. Before giving his nod, the chief minister decided to call two senior politicians from the JD(S) and BJP, who advised him against the release of water. The chief minister decided to toe their line. This upset the Union minister, who was hoping for a solution, the sources said.