Cauvery River Water Sharing Dispute - Karnataka decides against release of water to TN Wednesday Sep 21,2016

Karnataka decides not to release Cauvery water to Tamil Nadu till  Friday Sep 23,2016

The Karnataka Govt Cabinet headed by Siddaramaiah of the Congress Party on Wednesday Sep 21,2016 has decided not to release any further water from the Cauvery to Tamil Nadu, notwithstanding a Supreme Court of India Order to the contrary. It has also decided to convene an emergency session of the State Assembly on Saturday Sep 24,2016 to discuss the issue.

At an all-party meeting earlier in the day, all political parties in Karnataka baring principal opposition BJP, recommended against releasing water to Tamil Nadu.

The  Supreme Court of India(SCI) had on Tuesday directed Karnataka to release 6,000 cusecs of water to Tamil Nadu from September 21 to 27,2016

Participants at the all-party meet include-

•  Janata Dal-Secular (JDS) supremo HD Deve Gowda
•  party chief HD Kumaraswamy
•  Karnataka Rajya Raitha Sangha (KRRS) leader and Sarvodaya Karnataka Paksha (SKP) legislator KS Puttannaiah
• Congress was represented by its leader in the Lok Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge
• former Union Law Minister M Veerappa Moily
• KH Muniyappa
• MV Rajeev Gowda
• R Dhruvanarayana

All State ministers, MLAs and MLCs from the Cauvery basin districts attended the meet. 

BJP boycott

The BJP, which boycotted the meeting, said it was a meaningless exercise aimed at hoodwinking the Opposition parties as well as the people of Karnataka. “The BJP has rightly lost faith and confidence in the Congress government as it has repeatedly indulged in double-talk and betrayal. It is because of this reason the BJP decided to keep away from the all-party meeting convened by Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Tuesday,” said former Chief Minister and State BJP chief BS Yeddyurappa. He said the BJP did not want to be a “culpable-partner” in the “Congress government’s sins of omission and commission.”

Dam is State’s property

Criticising the apex court’s directive, former Chief Minister SM Krishna termed it as a perverted judgement and demanded that the State appeal before a full Bench of the SCI

Opposing the direction to constitute a Cauvery Management Board, Krishna said “the KRS dam is Karnataka’s property” and various constitutional procedures would have to be followed before control over such reservoirs is taken from the State. 

Don’t release water: JDS

Later after the council of ministers meet, Siddaramaiah drove down to meet Deve Gowda to apprise him of the Cauvery water crisis. This for the first time after the duo parted ways in 2007 that Siddaramaiah has met Deve Gowda.

Deve Gowda on Wednesday advised the Chief Minister Siddaramaiah against releasing water to Tamil Nadu, as directed by the Supreme Court on Tuesday. “There is no need for Siddarmaiah to resign at this juncture, let him take a firm stand against releasing water,” Gowda told reporters.

“I don’t want to politicise the issue. I had resigned thrice. I don’t have any objection to submit my resignation to the post of MP from Hassan. I can handover the letter of resignation to the Speaker tomorrow morning. But, who will be there in Lok Sabha to protect State farmers’ interest,” questioned Gowda. Expressing regret over the Supreme Court order, Gowda demanded intervention of Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the matter. “Modi has to reject the direction of Supreme Court,” he said.

Note

The 802 kilometres (498 miles) Cavery River has 44,000 km² basin area in Tamil Nadu and 32,000 km² basin area in Karnataka

Indian Government Notifies Cauvery Water Dispute Tribunal

On 20 February 2013, based on the directions of the Supreme Court, the Indian Government notified the final award of the Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal (CWDT) on sharing the waters of the Cauvery system among the basin States of Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, and Kerala and Union territory of Puducherry.

The “extraordinary” notification in the gazette dated 19 February 2013 says the order takes effect on the date of publication.The Tribunal, in an unanimous decision in 2007, determined the total Cauvery basin water availability in a normal year as 740 TMC at the Lower Coleroon Anicut site, including 14 TMC for minimum environmental flows and unavoidable wastage to the sea.

The final award makes an annual allocation of 419 TMC to Tamil Nadu in the entire Cauvery basin, 270 TMC to Karnataka, 30 TMC to Kerala and 7 TMC to Puducherry

According to the final award, the dams in question are Banasura Sagar (Kerala); Hemavathy, Harangi, Kabini and Krishnarajasagar (Karnataka) and Bhavanisagar, Amaravathy and Mettur (Tamil Nadu), all of which will be operated in an integrated manner under the overall guidance of the Cauvery Management Board (CMB) 

The water sharing criteria is based on two situations:

• When water availability is above the normal water year flows.
• When water availability is equal or below the normal water year flows

Above normal water year

Karnataka can use all the excess water available in its area after releasing 192 TMC applicable in a normal water year. Tamil Nadu can also use all the excess water available in its area (including flood water from Karnataka if any)

Below normal water year

When the total water availability is below 740 TMC (i.e. distress year), the allocated share of each state is reduced proportionately. Kerala (in Kabini basin) and Karnataka would use their reduced allocations and release rest of water below Billigundulu gauging station for use in Tamil Nadu and Puducherry

 Karnataka has to release water to Tamil Nadu on monthly basis proportionate to the monthly figures indicated for a normal year.

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