JOIN USState told to release water to TN
In a letter to Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa, Union Water Resources Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal said as sowing for the second crop (Samba) would begin by the end of this month in Tamil Nadu, Karnataka can help by releasing water to bail out distress farmers in the neighbouring state.
Union Water Resources Ministry is of the opinion that as farmers in Tamil Nadu were in distress due to low storage of water and poor monsoon, Karnataka could help them by releasing water by setting aside any differences in this issue.
The Centre’s request to Karnataka followed a letter from Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh asking him to intervene to help the farmers in his state.
At a recent meeting of the Cauvery Monitoring Cell chaired by Ministry of Water Resources Secretary U N Panjiar, the Karnataka government had expressed its inability to release water due to less storage of water in the Cauvery basin reservoir.
At the meeting attended by the chief secretaries of all Cauvery river basin states — Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Puducherry — Karnataka Chief Secretary S V Ranganath informed that with low storage of water in the Cauvery basin reservoirs in Karnataka, the State was not in a position to supply water to its own crop.
He also informed that the State had already released 30 tmc feet of water this year from its reservoirs to Tamil Nadu.
If Karnataka received good rainfall in the near future, the State may consider releasing more water to Tamil Nadu, he had said.
Convene meeting
In the meeting, Tamil Nadu had also urged the Centre to convene Cauvery River Authority meeting headed by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh immediately, to relay upon Karnataka in this regard.
Tamil Nadu claimed that as per the Cauvery Tribunal interim award, Karnataka has to release at least 205 tmc feet of water a year and in which 137 tmc feet of water has to be released between June to September.
However, during these four months ( June to September) Karnataka had released just 61 tmc feet of water, the Tamil Nadu government said while requesting to the Centre to urge the neighbouring state to release the remaining 76 tmc feet of water.