Cauvery row: SC tells Karnataka to comply with water release order

The Supreme Court on Monday asked the Karnataka Government to ensure compliance of the Cauvery Water Management Authority’s (CWMA) direction on the release of Cauvery water to Tamil Nadu.

While the Tamil Nadu Government claimed before the apex court that the CWMA’s direction was not being complied with, the Karnataka Government said the picture being projected was “extremely incorrect”. The Cauvery Water Regulation Committee (CWRC) had directed Karnataka to release 12,000 cusecs of water daily to Tamil Nadu for 15 days from August 12. The CWMA subsequently upheld the decision.

On Monday, the Tamil Nadu Government’s plea seeking directions to the Karnataka Government for immediate release of the water to it came up for hearing before a bench of Justices Vikram Nath and Sandeep Mehta.

“We feel that let this matter be posted after a week so that the further status regarding the release may be placed before the court,” the bench said. It posted the matter for August 24. “Ensure compliance of the CWMA directions,” the bench said. Senior advocate C S Vaidyanathan, appearing for Tamil Nadu, told the bench that the CWMA’s direction was not being complied with and the state was unable to release water to farmers.

“They (Karnataka) have started releasing water for irrigation in Karnataka, and Tamil Nadu has not been receiving water,” he said. “As of now, they have 76 per cent live storage in the reservoir and they have hardly released,” he added.

The bench the asked the Karnataka Government, “Why are you not releasing?”

Senior advocate Shyam Divan, appearing for Karnataka, replied that the picture being projected before it was “extremely incorrect in every material respect”.

“This is an extremely severe distress year and when you have an extremely severe distress year as in the present case, there is a mechanism and a machinery for the purposes of balancing,” he said. As far as the Cauvery basin is concerned, Divan said, there is enormous deficit and the CWMA is alive to the situation and has issued directions.

According to the first direction, Karnataka was required to ensure release of 3,500 cusecs of water for 15 days till August 11, he said.

Divan also referred to the subsequent direction to release 12,000 cusecs of water daily for 15 days from August 12, and placed the data before the bench. He said releasing 12,000 cusecs was very difficult for Karnataka, but instructions have been issued to ensure that this level is maintained.

Divan said the flow was low during the first three-four days but Karnataka will make it up in next few days. The Tamil Nadu Government had earlier said the state was not getting its due share of Cauvery water in a rain-deficient year.

The Joseph Vijay-led state Government on August 3 approached the apex court seeking directions to the Karnataka Government for immediate release of the water.

The state Government, in its plea, claimed that the quantum allocated to it by the CWRC as well as that released by its neighbour Karnataka was far less.

A CWRC meeting on July 28 directed Karnataka to release 3,500 cusecs for 15 days starting July 29. However, the quantum of water released at Biligundlu ranged between 158 and 550 cusecs from July 29 to August 2, the state Government said.

A press release issued by the Tamil Nadu Government said that as of August 3, the combined total storage in the reservoirs in Karnataka — KRS, Kabini, Harangi and Hemavathy — stood at 77.537 TMC (thousand million cubic feet) and Karnataka would face no difficulty in releasing Tamil Nadu’s due share proportionately.

Following rains in the catchment areas in the KRS and Kabini dams in Karnataka recently, the proportionate water to be realised at Biligundlu should be 26.954 TMC, it said.

“Accordingly, the Cauvery Water Management Authority order allocating 4.536 TMC is very less,” the release added.

Karnataka has “failed” to share with Tamil Nadu its due share of water and the quantum was 26.954 TMC, the press release said.