Belgaum: In spite of the protests by opposition
parties against releasing water to Tamil Nadu, the Karnataka government
will implement the Supreme Court direction to release 10000 cusecs of
water to Tamil Nadu daily till December 9, setting up a confrontation
with farmers in Mandya and Mysore, who are opposing the release of
water.
The matter was discussed in both Houses of the state
Legislature on Thursday with Chief Minister Jagadish Shettar saying the
state government and farmers had suffered the adverse consequences of
not implementing the Supreme Court and CRA directions at earlier
junctures. His reply was enough indication that the government was
planning to release water to Tamil Nadu on Thursday night. Proceedings
in both Houses were paralyzed because of the stalemate on the Cauvery
row.
However, the Chief Minister promised to safeguard the
interest of farmers by seeking a legal remedy. He will be leading a
delegation of MPs of the Cauvery basin to New Delhi on Friday to meet
the Prime Minister and Union water resources minister to discuss the
issue. “At this critical juncture, the state will explain the ground
situation to the Prime Minister”, Shettar said.
Apart from this, the CM will also meet senior counsel Fali Nariman and his team to discuss the future course of action.
In
his ten page reply to the Cauvery debate, the CM explained the history
of the dispute since 1892 till date. The Cauvery Monitoring Committee
(CMC) which visited the state had observed that the water in state
reservoirs is only enough to irrigate standing crops and meet drinking
water needs, he said. “We argued effectively in the Supreme Court, our
legal team did its best to convince the court about the ground situation
in the Cauvery basin, but unfortunately the court passed an adverse
order. After taking the advice of all stakeholders, I will explain the
situation to the Prime Minister”, the CM replied.
State water resources department officials will attend the CMC meeting at Delhi on Friday.
None
too convinced with the reply given by the CM, opposition parties staged
a dharna and demanded that the government explain its stance on
releasing of water to Tamil Nadu. They explained how they had handled
the crisis on earlier occasions and urged the government to adopt the
same approach. The government on its part explained the consequences if
it disobeys the Supreme Court order on releasing water to Tamil Nadu.
Opposition
leader Siddaramaiah said the state should make its stand clear that no
water will be released to Tamil Nadu. He criticized Tamil Nadu CM
Jayalalithaa for demanding more water.
“Jayalalithaa is an
unreasonable woman; she unnecessarily rakes up the Cauvery issue when
she comes to power. Compared to her, former Tamil Nadu CM M. Karunanidhi
was reasonable with Karnataka on the dispute,” Siddaramiah remarked.
Legislators of the Cauvery basin urged the government not release water to Tamil Nadu.
If the state obeys the SC order, farmers will face a deficit for both drinking water and irrigation needs, they said.