At dead of night, State lets water flow to TN

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Bangalore, Sep 30, 2012: Bowing to the Supreme Court order to release 9,000 cusecs of Cauvery water from its reservoirs daily to Tamil Nadu till October 20, the State government let the water flow from the KRS dam to the neighbouring State around midnight.

Cauvery water let out to Tamil Nadu from the Krishnarajasagara Dam, Mandya, at midnight Saturday. DH PhotoThe late night release was apparently aimed at minimising the public resistance in Mandya district and avoid any breach of peace.

According to sources, up to 5,295 cusecs of water was released during the day too. Officials confirmed the release of water, but refused to quantify it.

At Kabini Dam in H D Kote taluk in Mysore district, sources said 5,000 cusecs of water was being released. The volume of water being let out may increase at any time.

The release of water from the KRS dam began, after a group of protesters belonging to the JD(S), who were keeping an overnight vigil near D-point Entrance to KRS Dam against any release of water, were detained as they defied repeated requests by police to disperse.

Earlier in the day, caught in a bind over the Supreme Cou­rt’s order to implement the Cauvery River Authority (CRA) direction to release 9,000 cusecs of water daily to Tamil Nadu, the State government wrote to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who chairs the CRA, to stay its direction.

The decision to petition the Prime Minister, the second such appeal, was taken at a meeting of floor leaders in the Assembly, Cabinet ministers and legal experts, chaired by Chief Minister Jagadish Shettar here.

Manmohan Singh is unlikely to come to the aid of Karnataka. Sources told Deccan Herald that the Prime Minister has been emboldened by the strong approval of his stand by the Supreme Court on Friday.

After the all-party meeting held in Bangalore on Saturday, the state government sent a fax to the PMO seeking stay on the order. Till late in the night, there was no information on the response, if any, from the PMO.

Shettar ducked questions from the media whether the State would release water to its neighbour as directed by the court.

Fearing tension in the Cauvery basin in the light of the Supreme Court order, the government has tightened security in the region, complementing the local police with district armed reserve police platoons. A round-the-clock security vigil is being maintained at the KRS and Kabini reservoirs and entry of public into the KRS dam premises has been barred for three days.

Dilemma
The State government finds itself on the horns of a dilemma. The water in the State’s Cauvery reservoirs barely suffices the State’s needs and it has no surplus to part with. But failing to comply with the Supreme Court direction would attract contempt of court proceedings, while releasing water to Tamil Nadu would trigger an angry backlash from farmers of Cauvery basin and pro-Kannada organisations. By asking the Prime Minister to stay the CRA order, the government wants to buy some breathing time.

“The Supreme Court has directed us to comply with the CRA order. As the state is facing severe drought in the Cauvery basin, we have urged the Prime Minister to intervene and stay the September 19 order of the CRA. We will request him to pass the order by this evening,” Shettar told reporters after the meeting attended by floor leaders of political parties, cabinet ministers and legal experts.

Shettar said his government would await the response of the Prime Minister, before deciding on the future course of action.

In an bid to resolve the row over Cauvery river water between the two states, the prime minister, at the CRA meeting last week, had asked Karnataka to release 9,000 cusecs every day between September 20 and October 15 to Tamil Nadu.

The chief minister pointed out that the state government had already filed a review petition on September 20 before the CRA to keep its decision in “abeyance” till the time it was reviewed and set aside. “Had the CRA stayed its order following our (September 20) review petition, the Supreme Court would not passed any order”, Shettar said.

Shettar said the state had also requested the prime minister to depute an expert team to assess ground realities in the Cauvery basin, which is facing one of the worst droughts in 40 years.

Shettar said the meeting discussed in details how the previous governments had handled similar situations.

Sources said the state’s legal team has advised the state government that it had no choice but to release at least some amount of water to Tamil Nadu. The legal team is learnt to have told the government that it will not be in a position to place further arguments before the Supreme Court, unless there was some compliance of the CRA order.

In the evening, Shettar, along with Irrigation Minister Basavaraj Bommai, met Governor H R Bhardwaj and briefed him about the Cauvery issue.

Courtesy: Deccan Herald