The Tamil Nadu government has moved Supreme Court last week seeking the apex court’s direction to Karnataka to release 24,000 cubic feet per second (cusecs) of Cauvery water from its reservoirs to support standing crops.
It also urged the court to direct Karnataka to ensure the stipulated release of 36.76 TMC (thousand million cubic feet) for the month of September 2023 as per the Cauvery Tribunal award as modified by the Supreme Court in 2018.
The Karnataka government also filed an appeal in the top court following Tamil Nadu’s plea. The Supreme Court on Monday agreed to constitute a bench to hear the Cauvery River water-sharing dispute.
What is the Current Dispute?
While Tamil Nadu demanded release of 24,000 cusecs of water, Karnataka has been maintaining that it will be able to release water to Tamil Nadu taking into account its needs like drinking water and standing crops in the Cauvery basin areas citing scarcity due to deficit monsoon rains.
Karnataka Deputy CM DK Shivakumar, who is also in-charge of Water Resources department, following Tamil Nadu approaching the SC, said Karnataka would release 10 tmc ft of water from the Cauvery basin to the neighbouring state.
He added that the state doesn’t have sufficient water in dams to meet its requirements like drinking water and agriculture due to deficit monsoon. The ruling Congress government in Karnataka is convening an all-party meeting on August 23 to discuss the Cauvery water sharing issue.
Long Dispute
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.
The Centre established the Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal (CWDT) in June 1990 to address disagreements concerning water sharing capacities among Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Karnataka and Puducherry.
The Supreme Court a 2018 ruling decident how much water should be allotted to Tamil Nadu and how much should be kept by Karnataka. Karnataka is supposed to make available 177.25 TMC of water to Tamil Nadu in a ‘normal’ water year, between June to May.
According to a report in The Hindu, 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.
This year, Tamil Nadu had given a direction to Karnataka on August 10 to release 15,000 cusecs of water on August 11 for 15 days. But the amount of water was reduced to 10,000 cusecs by the Cauvery Water Management Authority (CWMA) on August 11.
However, even the 10,000 cusecs were not released by Karnataka, the Tamil Nadu government alleged.
According to reports, if the Cauvery basin fails to receive rain in the next couple of weeks and inflow into reservoirs does not improve, it could intensify conflict between the states.
The dry spell and drought-like situation will also lead to political turmoil as the opposition parties in both the states are attacking the ruling governments over the issue.
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