Bangalore, November 29
The meeting between Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa and her Karnataka counterpart Jagadish Shettar on the sharing of Cauvery waters sharing failed to produce any result. Both sides proffered to seek a solution from the Supreme Court that had asked the two chief ministers to talk to each other and resolve the problem.

Jayalalithaa flew in to Bangalore from Chennai this afternoon and the two Chief Ministers met at a luxury hotel here for around an hour. After the meeting, the two CMs talked to mediapersons separately. Jayalalithaa talked to reporters from inside her car as she headed for the airport soon after the meeting. Shettar, accompanied by his Water Resources Minister BR Bommai and Law Minister Suresh Kumar talked to the press in a hall at the hotel.

Jayalalithaa said she had told Shettar that the Mettur reservoir of Tamil Nadu was having an effective storage of only 6.34 TMC ft of water. Tamil Nadu required additional supply water for at least 65 days of irrigation for the standing Samba crops spread over 14.39 lakh acres.

“Otherwise there will be calamity. I explained all the facts before the Karnataka Chief Minister and requested for immediate release of 30 TMC ft of water in next 15 days, but the Karnataka CM refused to release a single drop of water,” Jayalalithaa said. She said that under the circumstances Tamil Nadu had no choice before it but to turn to the Supreme Court again where the hearing of the case was slated to resume tomorrow.

Jagadish Shettar told reporters that while explaining their inability to release water at this moment, Karnataka suggested measures for a long term solution of the problem. These included setting up of a mediation committee for sharing the Cauvery waters and an expert committee for disciplined agricultural practice with representatives from both sides in the committees. Jayalalithaa apparently did not show any interest in these proposals.

Bommai, Karnataka Water Resources Minister, said they offered to come down to Chennai for another round of meeting on the issue. Jayalalithaa told them they were welcome to visit Chennai, but the Cauvery issue would now be settled in the Supreme Court.

Bommai said Jayalalithaa’s claim that there was only 6.3 TMC ft of water in Mettur dam was not correct. According to the Central Water Commission, the dam was having 16.75 TMC ft of water, Bommai said. He also said Tamil Nadu was in a position to use ground water for irrigating its crops in the Cauvery catchment area.

Bommai added that while monsoon season was over for Karnataka, it was not so in the case of Tamil Nadu.