After an all-party meeting on Saturday in Bengaluru, Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said in the wake of failed south-west monsoon in the catchment areas of River Cauvery, the Government has decided to explain the prevailing situation to the Supreme Court and express inability to release water to Tamil Nadu as the current storage in the reservoirs was barely sufficient to meet the demand for supply of drinking water.
Siddaramaiah, who chaired the meeting, said the water levels in Cauvery reservoir and other dams in its tributaries in South Karnataka had been very low and it was enough only to cater to drinking water needs of Bengaluru, Mysuru, Mandya and other towns and villages in the basin. Supply to standing crops was also severely hampered in the valley.
He said, ''We have just enough water only to cater to drinking water needs from Cauvery. Tamil Nadu Government has sought release of water from the river for Samba crops, which is impossible at this juncture as the monsoon in the catchment areas is coming to an end.''
''There is severe shortage of water in most reservoirs and there has been only 51 tmc ft of water storage against the total capacity of 144 tmc ft of live storage. At this juncture we cannot release any more water to Tamil Nadu than what is flowing in the river downstream,'' he added.
This remark comes in the wake of Tamil Nadu filing an application in the apex court seeking immediate release of 50 tmc ft of water from Karnataka. The hearing is scheduled for September 2.
At this juncture, he expressed inability to meet the demand of Tamil Nadu demand for 50 tmc of water since Karnataka was facing a distress year, the Chief Minister said.
''We have 51 tmc ft storage in four reservoirs in Cauvery basin and need 49 tmc ft for drinking water. The total inflows during this monsoon into Cauvery and its tributaries had been 104 tmc ft against normal 196 tmc ft due to severe shortfall of rains in catchment areas.”
''This is the ground reality and we will put forth before the Supreme Court against the application of the Tamil Nadu Government,'' Siddaramaiah said.
He refuted the Tamil Nadu claims that there was only 2 per cent shortfall in monsoon in Karnataka.
Union Ministers Ananth Kumar, D V Sadananada Gowda, Rajya Sabha member Oscar Fernandes, Karnataka Ministers M B Patil, Krishna Byregowda, Opposition leaders in both the Houses of the legislature of BJP and JD(S), among others attended the meeting.
In fact, Tamil Nadu had filed a petition in Supreme Court on August 22 seeking a directive to Karnataka to release 50.052 tmc ft of water, as mandated by the Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal, for 2016-17.