E-Paper
Can’t release more water to TN: Karnataka in SC
Karnataka has termed DMK government’s application “wholly misconceived” since the state suffered from a distressed water year due to the failure of south-west monsoon
The Karnataka government on Thursday opposed the Tamil Nadu government’s plea in the Supreme Court for release of 24,000 cusecs (cubic feet per second) per day of Cauvery river water from its reservoirs, terming the DMK government’s application “wholly misconceived” since the state suffered from a distressed water year due to the failure of south-west Monsoon.
Submitting its affidavit a day before the hearing in the top court, the Siddaramaiah-government said that the Tamil Nadu government’s demand is based on an “erroneous assumption” that this water year is a normal water year.
“During this water year the south-west Monsoon has largely failed so far, due to which, the distress condition has arisen in the Cauvery basin. Karnataka, therefore, is not obliged to and it cannot be compelled to ensure water as per the stipulated releases prescribed for the normal year,” stated the Karnataka government’s affidavit.
It added that the claim by Tamil Nadu for the alleged shortfall of 28.849 TMC in the current month is “misleading” because the shortfall is calculated as of August 31 and that the said quantity has to be released in a normal water year. According to Tamil Nadu, Karnataka has had a shortfall of 28.849 TMC of water during the current irrigation year for the period between June 1 and July 31.
Maintaining that the total inflows in four reservoirs in Karnataka are lesser by 42.5% as on date, the affidavit contended: “The entire current storage plus likely inflow is not sufficient for the crops in Karnataka and for meeting the drinking water requirements of towns and villages including the megacity of Bengaluru which is the technological hub of the world. Hence, Karnataka’s reasonable needs are at serious risk.”
It further said that its requirement of water in 2023-24 from four reservoirs is 200.360 TMC (thousand million cubic feet) but Karnataka has drawn only 7.209 TMC from the four reservoirs till August 11, 2023. 11,000 cusecs flow for a day amounts to 1 TMC, which is around 28 billion litres of water.
Karnataka also blamed Tamil Nadu for creating the present crisis by its unnecessary opposition to the proposal of the former for construction of Mekedatu balancing reservoir-cum-drinking water project, near the interstate border at Biligundlu.
Karnataka also submitted that the Cauvery Water Management Authority (CWMA), a statutory body constituted for implementation of the decision of the Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal and as modified by the Supreme Court by its judgement on February 16, 2018, cannot be directed to ensure flows as stipulated in a normal water year in the wake of the distress situation in the Cauvery basin.
The affidavit added that the Karnataka government has asked CWMA to review the decision taken on August 11 for ensuring 10,000 cusecs per day at the inter-state border Biligundlu from August 12, for the next 15 days.
A bench led by justice Bhushan R Gavai is set to take up the Tamil Nadu government’s application filed last week for a direction to Karnataka to release 24,000 cusecs of Cauvery water daily in order to meet its pressing needs of standing crops. It urged the court to direct CWMA to ensure that the directions issued to Karnataka by Cauvery Water Dispute Tribunal (CWDT) in respect of the release of water to Tamil Nadu are fully implemented and the stipulated monthly releases during the remaining period of the current water year are fully given effect to.
The plea pointed out that Tamil Nadu CM MK Stalin also wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on August 4 apprising him of the growing concern amongst the farmers in the Cauvery Basin of Tamil Nadu due to the failure of Karnataka in adhering to the directions of CWMA.
The Tamil Nadu added that in the current water year 2023-24, Karnataka released only 11.6 TMC as against 40.4 TMC due at Billigundulu from 01.06.2023 to 31.07.2023 with a deficit of 28.8 TMC while Karnataka had a gross storage of 91 TMC in its 4 major reservoirs against the full capacity of 114.6 TMC.
The Cauvery water sharing is a long dispute between the two southern states- Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. The conflict traces its roots to two agreements in 1892 and 1924 between the Madras Presidency and Kingdom of Mysore.
In June 1990, the Union government established the CWDT to address disagreements concerning water sharing capacities among Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Karnataka and Puducherry. By a 2018 ruling, the Supreme Court issued directions on the water sharing between Tamil Nadu and Karnataka. Karnataka is supposed to make available 177.25 TMC of water to Tamil Nadu in a ‘normal’ water year.
According to the ruling, Karnataka has to make available a total of 123.14 TMC from June to September, a period when the Cauvery issue gets flared up as the monsoon yields lower rainfall.
