Karnataka Rajya Raita Sangha (KRRS) leader K S Puttannaiah urged the Supreme Court to form a committee representing Karnataka and Tamil Nadu to study the ground realities and survey the crops before taking any decision on the Cauvery issue.
He told reporters here on Thursday that Karnataka has only one monsoon while Tamil Nadu has two. “Now Karnataka has to release 50 tmc ft water, which is unscientific. The Cauvery dam has to irrigate more than 8 lakh acres of standing crop in the state. This time, the state received 43 per cent less rainfall. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh who is also the Chairman of Cauvery Tribunal, should have considered all these factors before directing unilaterally to release 9,000 cusecs of water for 24 days to Tamil Nadu,” he said.
According to Puttannaiah, releasing Cauvery water to Tamil Nadu is a bone of contention every year. “This year too Tamil Nadu is demanding its share at a time when Karnataka is facing drought. In 1991, some leaders who did not have any knowledge on agriculture signed the dangerous pact of releasing 205 tmc ft water with the TN government, which is detrimental to thousands of farmers in the state,” he said.
In a federal system, the Centre should not pave way for confrontation between two states. The unscientific decision of the PM has forced farmers in the Cauvery basin to plunge headlong into protest,” he regretted.
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