The day after SC direction to release 6,000 cusecs of water to Tamil Nadu till September 30 for three days, Karnataka has decided to defer releasing of water to Tamil Nadu till the Chief Minister’s meeting which will be held in Delhi on 29 as advised by the SC to resolve the issue between two States. Addressing a Press conference in Bengaluru on Wednesday after the crucial meeting of the council of Ministers and Cabinet meeting, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah has announced that State will defer releasing of water to Tamil Nadu till Thursday where he is going to attend a meeting of the Chief Ministers of both the States convened by the Union Government by Water Resources Minister Uma Bharti as directed by the SC.
He said “as advised by the leaders of the all parties and council of Ministers and also keeping in mind the resolution of the both the houses to release water only for drinking purpose we have decided to defer releasing of water to TN. We will take a decision after the outcome of the meeting of the Chief Ministers on Thursday”.
“We have utmost respect to the SC and this is not to violate the SC direction but to keep water for only drinking purpose. We will appraise everything on Thursday and decide next course of our action”, he added.”
The IT capital witnessed a hectic political parleys and an all-party meeting called by the Karnataka Government on the Cauvery issue. The opposition parties both BJP and JDS along with Congress leaders struck a rigid stance and asked the Siddaramaiah Government not to release more river water to Tamil Nadu.
“We have told the State Government not to release any more Cauvery water to Tamil Nadu for irrigation, as it is required to meet the drinking needs of our people in the river basin region,” Opposition leader and former BJP Chief Minister Jagadish Shettar told reporters after a marathon all-party meeting here on the issue.
Janata Dal-Secular (JD-S) leader YSV Datta said his party’s leader and former Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy had also conveyed to the State Government not to release the water till the outcome of Thursday’s meeting between the two States in New Delhi with Union Water Resources Minister Uma Bharti, as directed by the top court.
He said “We have told the Chief Minister (Siddaramaiah) not to release water to Tamil Nadu today (Wednesday). We will meet again after tomorrow’s (Thursday) meeting in Delhi. We also told him that our resolution was more important.”
As both the States stuck to their respective positions, the apex court bench had directed the Central Government to convene an urgent meeting of the heads of the two States to resolve the issue before it resumes hearing in the case on Friday.
Though Siddaramaiah will participate in the meeting on Thursday in New Delhi along with MB Patil and other top officials, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa has deputed her Public Works Minister EK Palaniswamy for the meeting as she is still recovering from illness at a private Chennai hospital.
Floor leaders of both the houses, members of Parliament and legislators and district incharge Ministers from the river basin attended the three-hour-long meeting. Members of Raitha Sangha, a regional outfit of farmers, also participated in the meeting.
Senior leaders, including Union Ministers HN Ananth Kumar, Ramesh Jigajinagi and DV Sadananda Gowda, Congress floor leader in the lok Sabha M Mallikarjuna Kharge, BJP State president BS Yeddyurappa, State Janata Dal (Secular) president HD Kumaraswamy, Mr Shettar, leader of the Opposition in the legislative Council KS Eshwarappa, JD(S) leader in the Council Basavaraj Horatti, all Ministers, and legislators attended the meeting chaired by Mr Siddaramaiah.
On September 26, the Karnataka Government filed a petition in the court seeking a modification to its order from September 20. Meanwhile, the State’s legislature passed a resolution on September 23 saying said they cannot release water from the river for anything but drinking water purposes in Bengaluru and other towns and villages that fall in the Cauvery basin.