No water for Tamil Nadu, send expert team: Siddaramaiah

Bengaluru: Ruling out further release of Cauvery water to Tamil Nadu for raising their Samba crop, Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah urged the Union government to send a team of experts to the Cauvery basin of both states to verify the ground realities, storage, inflow and outflow before taking a view on the issue.

Talking to reporters after attending a meeting of the two heads of states convened by Union Water Resources Minister Uma Bharti in Delhi on Thursday, the CM said he explained to the Union minister the current situation in four dams in the Cauvery basin-Krishna Raja Sagar, Kabini, Harangi and Hemavathi owing to failure of monsoon. As on September 23, Karnataka had a storage of 27.6 tmc ft water in the four dams. The state implemented the Supreme Court's directive on September 5 to release 15,000 cusecs of water to TN and deferred its decision to release 6,000 cusecs daily due to low storage in its four dams.

On September 23, both Houses of the state Legislature unanimously passed a resolution deciding to reserve 27.6 tmc ft of water only for drinking purposes. On September 27, the apex court again directed Karnataka to release 6,000 cusecs to TN for three days (till Sep 30). But, an all party meeting decided on September 28 not to  release water to TN. The meeting said the state government should abide by the resolution adopted by the legislature.

Mr Siddaramaiah said the Tamil Nadu delegation led by PWD Minister Palaniswamy opposed Karnataka's plea to dispatch an experts team to study the ground realities for reasons best known to them. "In my view, Tamil Nadu should have agreed as a study by a third party would have revealed the ground reality in both states such as water level in dams, ground water availability and IMD predictions. With TN disagreeing, the Union minister decided to convey to the Supreme Court on Friday through its attorney general the proceedings of Thursday's meeting".

Stating that Karnataka has the highest regard for the judiciary and rule of law, the CM said the state did not have any intention of disobeying the apex court's directive. In fact, Karnataka had implemented all orders starting from September 5. But, now the state was not in a position to release water which was needed to meet the drinking water needs of Bengaluru, Mysuru and several villages.  Even the National Water Policy says that priority should given to drinking water followed by agriculture, industries and power generation.  Tamil Nadu has around 43 tmc ft of water in Mettur Dam, around 20 tmc ground water (as assessed by Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal) and will also benefit from the North-East Monsoon with the IMD predicting normal rain from October to December.  Karnataka has no hope of rain now with the South-West Monsoon over this month. While Karnataka wants to save water for drinking, Tamil Nadu wants it for its Samba crop. Besides, they do not require water immediately to save the crops.”

Siddaramaiah: SC Bench can’t direct centre to form CMB
Chief Minister Siddaramaiah asserted that the two-member bench of the Supreme Court currently hearing the Cauvery water case involving Karnataka and Tamil Nadu, has no jurisdiction to direct the Union government to constitute Cauvery Management Board (CMB).

Talking to reporters after attending a meeting of the administrative heads of Karnataka and Tamil Nadu convened by Union Water Resources Minister Uma Bharti, the Chief Minister said that Karnataka would strongly oppose any move to constitute the Cauvery Management Board. Besides, the present bench did not have jurisdiction to direct the Centre as such a directive can only be given by a three-member judge, he claimed.

On Tamil Nadu's claim that Tamil speaking people have no security in Karnataka, Mr Siddaramaiah refuted the allegation and said his government was committed to protect all linguistic minorities including Tamilians. "They had been given protection and they will be given security in the state".