After the two-day visit of technical team headed by Central Water Commission chief GS Jha to the Cauvery basin recently in the State, Karnataka hopes technical team would do justice looking at the grave situation the State is facing. Chief Minister Siddaramaiah expressed confidence that the technical team would help the State by understanding the real situation in the basin. Talking to media in coastal town of Mangaluru on Sunday the Chief Minister said the team understood the grave situation in the basin and expects justice would be done to the State.
He said the committee was constituted on Karanataka’s request, and had visited various places in the Cauvery basin. He added that he expected justice during the next hearing of the Supreme Court on October 18.
On another contentious issue on Mahadayi between Goa and Karnataka Siddaramaiah said he would attend the meeting on October 21 at Mumbai. He had written letters to the Prime Minister and Chief Ministers of Maharashtra and Goa for a meeting, following the Tribunal’s opinion favouring an out of court settlement.
Asked whether the Government would go ahead with the Yettinahole water diversion project in the light of the fresh report by the Indian Institute of Science that not more than 9 tmcft water was available, Siddaramaiah said the Government was told more than 24 tmcft water was available. The basis had been conceived on this basis, he said, adding that Dakshina Kannada would not be affected.
In another development the major Opposition BJP had submitted a memorandum to the visiting Central team stating that any further water release from the Cauvery basin reservoirs to Tamil Nadu would result in severe water crisis in Bengaluru.
A source confirmed that the technical team understood grave situation in the Cauvery basin and positive about submitting a report to the Apex Court based on real situation.
The memorandum, submitted to the eight-member team led by Central Water Commission chief GS Jha, stated that Bengaluru required 15 tmcft of drinking water from October till the onset of next monsoon. Bengaluru, Mysuru and surrounding villages were totally dependent on withdrawals from the reservoirs itself.
The memorandum was submitted by a delegation led by former Deputy Chief Minister R Ashoka, ex-Water Resources Minister Basavaraj Bommai and BJP legislators from Bengaluru.
As per the directives of Apex Court the high power Technical team visited both Karnataka and Tamil Nadu to assess the water availability in the Cauvery basin and would submit the report to the Apex court by October 17.