Amid protests, Karnataka has started releasing Cauvery water to Tamil Nadu complying with the Supreme Court directive asking it to release 15,000 cusecs per day to the neighbouring state for ten days.
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In Tamil Nadu, farmers from the Delta region expressed unhappiness, claiming 15,000 cusec was inadequate for their farming needs and described it as “too little too late”.
The apex court on Monday gave Karnataka three days to respond to Tamil Nadu’s plea and release 15,000 cusecs of water daily for 10 days from September 7-16.
He said that the state will “try” to get enough and more water for the farmers in the Cauvery basin apart from providing drinking water to the districts which depend on the river.
Despite the eruption over the Supreme Court, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah has chose to face the ire of his people rather than that of the apex court. Around 700 buses from Karnataka to Tamil Nadu and Kerala stopped plying on Tuesday, and a major highway in Karnataka was blocked during protests.
The government has closed access to the famous Brindavan Gardens, adjoining the Krishna Rajendra Sagar (KRS) dam, where storage of water has been low due to a weak monsoon in the region. There were even plans to block the Bengaluru-Hosur highway, but the police put paid to the plan. Effigies and posters of Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa were burnt in some places in these districts.
“We also appeal to the IT and biotech industry to shut their offices on Friday and support our struggle, as its employees are also direct beneficiaries of the Cauvery river from where drinking water is supplied daily throughout the year”, an activist of the Kannada Rakshana Vedike (protection forum) told IANS here.
Officials confirmed that water was being let out since last midnight, shortly after the all-party meeting called by Chief Minister Siddaramaiah.
Speaking to select media on the Cauvery issue, Siddaramaiah said, Â Some people are trying to attribute that Nariman made a mistake and that’s why we were forced to release water. “We will obey the order”.
Gowda demanded chief ministers’s resignation and urged the residents of the Bengaluru to support the Cauvery agitation.
This is because farmers in Karnataka themselves facing acute shortage of water. What saddens is that the decades old fight for water has badly taken on the lives and livings of the ordinary people those who work across the border of both the States.
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The apex court set up the supervisory committee in May 2013 as a pro-tem measure for implementing the Cauvery Water Dispute Tribunal award, which the central government notified in February of 2013 and six years after the tribunal declared the award in February 2007.
