As drought and intensifying heat has a scary situation across the State, Karnataka has told the Tamil Nadu that it was not possible to release water to Chennai for drinking water purpose. Chief Minister Siddaramaiah told reporters on Sunday in Bengaluru that as reservoirs has no water on the Cauvery basin it was not possible to release water to Tamil Nadu for drinking water purposes to Chennai.
He said on the sidelines of a function that that the reservoirs are empty and this has been conveyed to the visiting team of Tamil Nadu water officials who met Karnataka Chief Secretary Subhash Khuntia on Saturday in the Vidhana Soudha.
He said “Their (Tamil Nadu) officials had come...they have had meeting with our Chief Secretary. We have explained to them that there is no water in our Cauvery reservoirs. We have told them that if there are rains and we get water, we will give for drinking,” Siddaramaiah told reporters. “Now, we don’t have water to give them,” he added.
A team of officials headed by its Public Works Department Principal Secretary SK Prabhakar from Tamil Nadu had come to Bengaluru and met Karnataka chief secretary Subhash Kuntia. The team had requested Chief Secretary Khuntia for release of water for drinking purposes.
“We have explained our constraints to release water because of the severe shortage in the basin. It is difficult to meet Tamil Nadu’s request. But we are ready to help in the coming days when the water availability increases,” said Khuntia after the meeting.
It is alleged that the Tamil Nadu team did not discuss the recent Supreme Court order asking Karnataka release 2,000 cusecs per day to Tamil Nadu. They had sought water based on humanitarian grounds.
According to PWD sources the reservoirs on the Cauvery basin has only 8.8 tmc of water and State needs 3 tmc of water for drinking water purposes across towns and cities on Cauvery valley. In KRS dam the water level has reached dead storage level and not possible to release the water.
Meanwhile, Karnataka is facing its second consecutive drought year as it has faced over 50 per cent deficient rainfall this year. The State has also been directed by the SC to release Cauvery water to Tamil Nadu despite facing acute drinking water shortage that is expected to only get worse in the coming months.
In another development The National Democratic Alliance Government has released Rs1,235.52 crore for drought-hit Karnataka, from the National Disaster Response Fund (NDRF).
A Supreme Court bench headed by Justice Dipak Misra had on March 21 said all interim orders of releasing 2,000 cusecs of Cauvery water by Karnataka would continue to be in force till further orders.
Following this, the Karnataka Government had expressed its inability in supplying Cauvery water to Tamil Nadu in line with the Apex Court’s directive, saying the state itself is facing a shortage of drinking water.
Meanwhile, Former Chief Minister SM Krishna, who recently joined BJP, termed the State’s stand not to release water to Tamil Nadu as “correct,” citing the reason that water level in the reservoirs was just enough for drinking water needs.
Noting that Tamil Nadu’s main intention was to get the Cauvery Management Board created, former Chief Minister and JD(S) leader HD Kumaraswamy hit out at
the State Government and the BJP Minister at the Centre and its Members of Parliament for not taking the issue “seriously”.
The Supreme Court will on July 11, commence the final hearing of the appeals filed by Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Kerala against the 2007 award of the Cauvery Water Dispute Tribunal on sharing of water for 15 consecutive workings days.