Ask CWMA to consider our plea, CM Siddaramaiah to Shekhawat

BENGALURU: Chief Minister Siddaramaiah has written to Union Jal Shakti Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat to ask the Cauvery Water Management Authority (CWMA) to consider the pleadings of Karnataka and to review the decision of the Cauvery Water Regulation Committee (CWRC), which has directed Karnataka to release 5,000 cusecs of Cauvery water for 15 days. This is to ease the burden on the state and to safeguard the interests of farmers and people in this drought-affected year, he stated.

Siddaramaiah said the CWRC order cannot be practically implemented without endangering the interests of farmers and livestock that depend on Cauvery water.

Siddaramaiah pointed out that the state has complied with and respected the previous directions of CWMA and CWRC so far.

“A majority of taluks in the Cauvery basin in Karnataka are reeling under severe drought conditions due to acute water stress due to failure of Southwest monsoon. Tamil Nadu has used a whopping 99.776 tmcft in the last 92 days,” he added.

Meanwhile, senior JDS leader and former chief minister HD Kumaraswamy on Wednesday took the state government to task for releasing Cauvery water to Tamil Nadu by ignoring the interests of the Karnataka farmers. Kumaraswamy said in Hassan that the government should not release water to the neighbouring state till September 21, when the Supreme Court will hear the dispute.