Karnataka Evades “Wrath of Law”, Starts Release of Cauvery Water

The release started on Monday at 8 pm and a large portion of the water was expected to reach Tamil Nadu soon.

Karnataka CM Siddaramaiah during Special Assembly session on the Cauvery issue at Vidhan Soudha in Bengaluru on Monday. (Photo: PTI)

Karnataka has ended its defiance of the Supreme Court’s orders and started release of 6,800 cusecs of water for irrigation purposes from the KRS dam. The release started on Monday at 8 pm and a large portion of the water was expected to reach Tamil Nadu by Tuesday.

The apex court had warned Karnataka to not invite the “wrath of the court” on 30 September after observing Karnataka’s defiance of SC’s order. The court had asked to release 6,000 cusecs per day from 1-6 October.

An account from Mysuru said the discharge from the Kabini reservoir was at the rate of 3,500 cusecs, The Hindu reported .

The legislature, had earlier passed a resolution to “empower” the State government to release water to State irrigation canals which meant that a significant amount of water could be released to the neighbouring state.

The two Houses passed a carefully-worded resolution to increase the storage levels in the four reservoirs in the Cauvery basin for the last 10 days. The resolution reads, “The state government may take an appropriate decision regarding release of water for irrigation in the best interests of the state.”

The resolution drew criticism from the BJP and it cautioned the State government against any release of water to Tamil Nadu using this open-ended last line of the resolution.

(Source: The Hindu)