New Delhi, October 20
The Karnataka Government today claimed that it had complied with most of the directions of the Supreme Court and the Cauvery River Authority (CRA) pertaining to the release of Cauvery waters to Tamil Nadu and asserted that it had no intention to “flout” the orders of the constitutional authorities.

“The Government of Karnataka has no intention to disobey the orders of the Supreme Court or any constitutional authority. It is the duty of the government to uphold the interests of the people of the state”, Karnataka Water Resource Minister H.K. Patil told newspersons here.

The statement comes four days ahead of the hearing by the Supreme Court on the contempt petition filed by Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa against Karnataka Chief Minister S.M. Krishna.

Stating that although water in Karnataka was insufficient to meet its own requirements, the minister claimed that the state had ensured the flow of 97,044 cusecs as against 1,26,000 cusecs between October 1 and October 14, which worked out to a deficit of 23 per cent of the quantum of water to be released.

The flows in the coming weeks were likely to improve and Karnataka hoped the requisite quantity of water would become available at the Mettur reservoir by the end of October, he said.

He was addressing a press conference after inaugurating an exhibition on “Cauvery” at Karnataka Bhavan, here.

“Unfortunately, there is some adverse publicity giving the impression that Karnataka is disobeying the Supreme Court,” he said.