New Delhi: The Cauvery Water Management Authority on Wednesday ordered the Karnataka government to release 40 TMC of water to Tamil Nadu during June and July.
After the CWMA was formed according to the direction of the Supreme Court, the sixth meeting of the CWMA was held via video conferencing on Wednesday. The meeting was chaired by CWMA chairman Rajendra Kumar Jain. K Manivasagan, Principal Secretary to the Tamil Nadu Government for Public Works department and other secretaries from Karnataka, Kerala and Puducherry had taken part in the meeting.
During the meeting, Tamil Nadu objected to Karnataka government's move of erecting a check dam at Mekedatu across the Cauvery.
However, Karnataka argued that they have no facility to store water during excessive rainfall. As Tamil Nadu and Puducherry continued to object to the project, it led to a little confusion in the meeting.
Finally however, the CWMA ordered Karnataka to release 40 TMC of water for Tamil Nadu during the months of June and July. According to the direction of CWMA, TN will get 9.19 tmcft of water in June and 31.24 tmcft water in July.
"As per the order of Supreme Court, CWMA agreed that Karnataka should release 40 TMC of water to Biligundulu, an inter-state border for Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. Tamil Nadu has also proposed that it would open the Mettur Dam on June 12 as it was accepted by all the riparian states," CWMA chairman RK Jain told the media.
Pertinently, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami and Principal Secretary K Shanmugam had written to the Prime Minister and Jal Shakti Ministry not to bring the Mekedatu matter into discussion at the CWMA meeting, citing that the matter was sub-judice.
CWMA chairman RK Jain confirmed that the Mekedatu matter was deferred during the meeting.
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