From Sep. 21-30.
The Cauvery Supervisory Committee on Monday ordered Karnataka to release 3000 cusecs water to Tamil Nadu from September 21 to 30. While both the states failed to arrive at a consensus, the committee reached the decision after analyzing the reports submitted by the states.
“The supervisory committee took into consideration the interest of all the participating states, the inflow position, rainfall picture, daily inflow of water in the reservoirs of Karnataka, the drinking water needs of Karnataka and the need of samba crop in Tamil Nadu”, said Union water resources secretary and chairman of the committee Shashi Shekhar, The Times of India reported.
“They have not agreed. The two states are free to challenge this order in the Supreme Court when it takes up the matter tomorrow or they can agree with the order before the court,” Shekhar added.
The committee’s decision came two weeks after the Supreme Court ordered Karnataka to release 15000 cusecs water to Tamil Nadu for ten days. Last week, the court had modified its order and reduced the quantum of water to be released to 12000 cusecs till September 20.
The order had led to widespread protests in different parts of Karnataka including the state capital Bengaluru.
The committee failed to reach a decision on its meeting held on September 12 due to lack of adequate information which was to be made available by the states involved in the issue. It, then, asked the states to submit information by September 15.
“The Committee took a detailed presentation from the chief secretaries of Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Puducherry and the representative from Kerala. The committee tried to reach to a conclusion but Tamil Nadu and Karnataka did not agree to a particular figure of release of water which was based on scientific facts,” Shekhar said.
The next meeting of the committee will be held in October. It has also decided to hold a meeting once in every month from February 2017 onwards.
Security has beefed up in different parts of Karnataka ahead of the meeting of the supervisory committee.