Bengaluru : Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah Sunday said that a consensus has been reached in the all-party meeting to release 8,000 cusecs of water to Tamil Nadu from Kabini in Mysuru.
The all-party meeting was held at Vidhana Soudha on Sunday under the chairmanship of Chief Minister Siddaramaiah in the wake of the recommendation of the Cauvery Water Regulatory Authority (CWRC) on the release of Cauvery river water to Tamil Nadu. Addressing a press conference later, the CM said that they had explained the actual situation in the meeting and a decision was taken based on this.
State Water Dispute Law Team Head Mohan Kataraki, and AG Shashikiran Shetty participated in the meeting. Now 13,000 cusecs of water are flowing from Kabini every day. "Instead, let's release 8,000 cusecs of water daily. If there is no rain, let's reduce the amount of water released. It has also been decided to file an appeal in the Cauvery Water Management Authority (CWMA)," the CM said.
It is not possible to release 1 TMC water daily. If 11,500 cusecs of water are released in 24 hours, it becomes 1 TMC of water. Hence it has been decided to release 8,000 cusecs of water daily. 1 TMC water cannot be released regularly. The CM clarified that the members of all parties have suggested that the recommendation of the CWRC should be appealed to the CWMA.
"On July 11, the CWRC had recommended a total release of 20 TMC of water at the rate of 1 TMC daily till July 30. 9.14 TMC of water was to be released to Tamil Nadu in the month of June. 31.24 TMC of water has to be released in July. A total of 40.43 TMC of water has to be released. So far we have released more than 5 TMC of water," the CM said.
"Earlier in the meeting held at Home Office Krishna, we had decided not to release water. We had decided to appeal before CWMA. Also, we decided to hold an all-party meeting. Accordingly, we held an all-party meeting today. All party members spoke in the meeting. Mohan Kataraki who was present in the meeting said that this time the inflow has reduced by 30%. So it is not a year with much rain. He advised that it would be difficult to release 1 TMC of water daily," explained the CM.
''Kabini Reservoir is 96% full. In Harangi, there is 76% water, Hemavati 56% and KRS 54%. Only 63 per cent of the four dams have been filled with water. Five thousand cusecs of water was inflowing to Kabini. We used to release so much water to Tamil Nadu. Now Kabini had an inflow of 20,000 cusecs on July 12. 19,000 cusecs water inflow increased on July 13. 13,000 cusecs of water has flowed today. Water which cannot be stored considering the safety of the reservoir is being released," CM Siddaramaiah said.
"It cannot be said that water will not be released to Tamil Nadu. CWAM, the Court can object if done that way. So Mohan Kataraki suggested releasing 8000 cusecs of water daily. Leaders of all parties have also agreed on this. Accordingly, it has been decided to release 8,000 cusecs of water daily instead of 11,500 cusecs," Siddaramaiah said.
In the all-party meeting, Deputy Chief Minister and Water Resources Minister DK Shivakumar, Leader of the Opposition R Ashoka, former Chief Minister DV Sadananda Gowda, Mysore MPYaduveer Wadiyar, BJP MLC CT Ravi, JDS leaders GT Deve Gowda, Saravan and ministers G. Parameshwar, KH Muniyappa, Chaluvarayaswamy, KJ George, Dinesh Gundurao, HC Mahadevappa, Krishna Byregowda, K Venkatesh, Boseraju, Special Representative of Karnataka Government in Delhi TB Jayachandra and Cauvery Basin MLAs participated.
Kumaraswamy Absent: Union Minister and Mandya MP HD Kumaraswamy was absent at the all-party meeting organized regarding the release of Cauvery water to Tamil Nadu. HD Kumaraswamy went to Mandya for a pre-arranged program. In a press conference yesterday, Kumaraswamy had expressed his objection to the manner in which he was invited to the all-party meeting. Other Union Ministers Nirmala Sitharaman, Prahlad Joshi, Shobha Karandlaje and V Somanna were also invited to the all-party meeting. But did not attend the meeting. Bengaluru MPs Tejaswi Surya and PC Mohan also did not attend the meeting.
