Water to TN: Cauvery Authority meet today

Amid weak monsoon and poor inflow to reservoirs, the Cauvery Water Management Authority (CWMA) will meet here on Tuesday to chart the future course of action following Tamil Nadu’s demand on the immediate release of Cauvery water from Karnataka.

The meeting will take stock of the situation following a complaint from Tamil Nadu that Karnataka has not released June quota of water, a source in the CWMA told DH.

S Masood Husain, who is also chairman of the Central Water Commission, will chair the meeting. This will be Hussain’s last meeting as he will retire upon his superannuation this month.

In its last meeting on May 28, the CWMA had asked the Karnataka to release 9.19 tmcft of June quota to Tamil Nadu. Karnataka agreed to honour the decision only if the catchment area received good rainfall. However, the Cauvery Water Regulation Committee (CWRC) meeting held here on June 20, Karnataka refused to release water to Tamil Nadu due to low storage and poor inflow in Cauvery basin reservoirs. In the meeting, Tamil Nadu alleged that up to June 20, Karnataka had released only 1.71 tmcft of water against the 9.19 tmcft. The CWRA also took note of the Indian Meteorological Department’s report which said Cauvery basin area in Karnataka witnessed deficient rainfall from June 1 to 20.