Cauvery River Authority (CRA) Meet - Wednesday Sep 19,2012

Chief Ministers of TN  and Karnataka Ms Jayalalthaa and Jagadish Shettar attended the 7th meeting of the Cauvery River Authority (CRA) chaired by Manmohan Singh at his residence here along with Puducherry Chief Minister N. Rangasamy and Kerala Water Resources Minister P.J. Joseph, who was standing in for an indisposed Chief Minister Oomen Chandy.

Note - The CRA meeting was convened after a gap of nine years, with the last meeting held in 2003 under the chairmanship of then prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee.

"After discussion, and based on the principle that distress needs to be shared among the basin states, the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh ruled that it was appropriate that Karnataka releases 9,000 cusecs of water daily from Sep 20 to Oct 15,2012'' after the Karnataka State refused to accept TN’s demand for 2 tmcft water for 24 days or 1 tmcft for 30 days.

Jagadish Shettar, interacting with reporters soon after, said: "We told the prime minister that the state is not in a position to release the water and walked out in protest."

SC  Bench Directs Karnataka to Comply with CRA Order
The Supreme Court on Friday Sep 28,2012 expressed its displeasure over Karnataka not complying with a direction issued by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, heading the Cauvery River Authority (CRA), to release 9,000 cusecs of Cauvery water daily to Tamil Nadu from September 20 to October 15,2012.

A Bench comprising Justice D.K. Jain and Justice Madan B. Lokur told counsel V.N. Raghupathy, appearing for Karnataka: “This is an order passed by the Prime Minister. But you don’t want to comply… It is really unfortunate that nobody is prepared to listen to the Prime Minister, who is the highest executive authority. Have we reached that stage when you say to the Prime Minister, ‘you pass an order, we will not comply with it’? We are sorry for the kind of respect you have for the Prime Minister.”

The Bench directed Karnataka to comply with the CRA’s order. It issued notice to Karnataka seeking its response within a week to Tamil Nadu’s application, and a rejoinder from Tamil Nadu within a week thereafter.

Withhold water release order, Karnataka tells CRA

Karnataka Chief Minister Jagadish Shettar, who chaired an all-party meeting here on Saturday Sep 29,2012 to discuss the Cauvery issue, said later: “We will fax our representation to the CRA since this is an emergent matter. The next course of action will be [decided] only after the response from the CRA.  

The Karnataka government will submit a letter to the Prime Minister-led Cauvery River Authority to act swiftly on its request to withhold the September 19 order that directed the State to release 9,000 cusecs of water a day to Tamil Nadu until October 15 ,2012.

Saturday’s decision is a repeat of the exercise and comes after the Supreme Court’s observation on Friday that Karnataka abide by the CRA order.

Mr. Shettar, along with Minister for Water Resources Basavaraj Bommai, held detailed discussions with legal experts in New Delhi on Friday to finalise the State’s stand, especially since the State could face contempt action if it failed to implement the court’s directive.

Karnataka Release Water - Sunday Sep 30,2012

Karnataka has been releasing 9,000 cusecs since Sunday, in compliance with a Supreme Court directive.

Farmers begin relay hunger strike over Cauvery water release to Tamil Nadu

A farmers' body spearheading the stir against release of Cauvery water to Tamil Nadu began a relay hunger strike in Mandya in protest against Karnataka's action and warned that people would stop paying taxes if government did not heed their demand to stop the flow by Oct 04,2012 Thursday evening.

"We have set a deadline to the government... if the water release is not stopped by this evening, people will resort to a civil disobedience movement by not paying taxes," Cauvery Hitarakshana Samithi President G Madegowda said. 

Opposition Congress leader in the assembly Siddaramaiah commenced a padayatra from Mysore to Mandya to express solidarity with the agitating farmers.

Chief Minister Jagadish Shettar had urged farmers to maintain peace and said the state would file a review petition before the Supreme Court, praying for a review of the Cauvery River Authority directive.

 

Rallies in Bangalore over Cauvery water row

The agitation against release of Cauvery river water to Tamil Nadu hit Bangalore on Friday Oct 5,2012 with religious leaders, Kanndada film actors, members of Kannada organisations and politicians taking out rallies.

Several thousand activists of 'Karnataka Rakshana Vedike' (Karnataka Protection Forum) took out a march from National College grounds in south Bangalore to Freedom Park in city centre.

A number of religious leaders and a few Kannada film actors joined the march organised to demand immediate halt to release of water to Tamil Nadu in view of Karnataka facing worst drought in 40 years

Total Bandh in Karnataka - Saturday Oct 6,2012

Many schools, colleges and offices in Karnataka were closed today due to the 12-hour bandh called by various Kannada outfits to protest against the Cauvery River Authority (CRA) order directing the state to release water to Tamil Nadu.

PM Holds Discussions With Karnataka Leaders

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Monday Oct 8,2012 held consultations with Congress leaders from Karnataka on sharing the water of the Cauvery River with Tamil Nadu during which they told him about the "grim" situation in Karnataka.

External Affairs Minister SM Krishna, Labour Minister Mallikarjun Kharge, Minister of State for Railways KH Munniyappa along with Water Resources Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal met the Prime Minister at his South Block office for an hour.

 

Karnataka stops release of water to Tamil Nadu

Karnataka on Monday Oct 8,2012 stopped release of Cauvery water from the Krishna Raja Sagar dam citing depleted storage, hours after Prime Minister Manmohan Singh made it clear that only the Cauvery River Authority  can review its order directing the state to release 9,000 cusecs to Tamil Nadu .

"As per the direction of Irrigation Department heads, we have closed down the five crest gates through which the water is flowing to Tamil Nadu", KRS chief executive engineer Vijayakumar told