Chennai, June 15
The Tamil Nadu Government seems to be bracing up for a confrontation with the neighbouring newly-elected Karnataka Government over the release of Cauvery waters.
Despite Karnataka Chief Minister Dharam Singh today categorically ruling out any chance of releasing Cauvery waters to Tamil Nadu, the state government is still sending a high-level delegation to
Bangalore tomorrow.
The delegation will meet Mr Dharam Singh and apprise him of the “grave situation in the Cauvery delta areas” and request him to release Cauvery waters to Tamil Nadu immediately so that the farmers could raise the short-term paddy crop.
The situation in south India is similar to the one in the north between Punjab and Haryana over sharing the Sutlej waters. For over several years there has been a dispute between Tamil Nadu and Karnataka over the sharing of the Cauvery waters.
Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa said the delegation would be led by PWD Minister O. Paneerselvan who will brief the Karnataka Government on the “pathetic plight of lakhs of farmers of the Cauvery delta area.”
The scheduled date of opening of the Mettur reservoir in Tamil Nadu for short-term paddy cultivation in the Cauvery delta area is June 12 every year.
The available usable storage at the dam was only about 6 tmc feet as on June 13. Due to this low storage position, water could not be released for cultivation in the delta area.
A Tamil Nadu Government official said the farmers in the Cauvery delta area had been reduced to extreme stress by successive years of drought.
This year, with an improved south-west monsoon in the catchment areas of the Cauvery, the farmers were looking forward eagerly to the immediate release of water to take up the short-term paddy cultivation.
Earlier on June 5 Ms Jayalalithaa had written to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to convene a meeting of the Cauvery River Authority and resolve the issue immediately as the farmers of Tamil Nadu had been suffering for the past three years because of drought.
The DMK-led delegation had also been to Karnataka recently to meet the Chief Minister on the issue in vain.
