Bengaluru: Karnataka is all set to receive a high-level central technical team led by Mr G.S. Jha, chairman, Central Water Commission (CWC) which is undertaking a four-day visit to Karnataka and Tamil Nadu to study ground realities in the Cauvery basin.
Sources told Deccan Chronicle that the state government has kept two choppers ready to take the team members for an aerial visit of dams in the Cauvery basin. On Friday, Water Resources Minister M.B. Patil and other senior officials would be meeting the team members in Vidhana Soudha around 10 am and present a memorandum explaining to them the poor storage of water in dams in the basin owing to failure of monsoon.
Later, the team members will proceed to Mandya district. In two days, the team would be halting at Maddur, Krishna Raja Sagar, KR Pet and Gorur for field studies.
The sources said the team members would be staying overnight in KRS and then proceed to other places to get a first hand experience of drought in the Cauvery basin. On Saturday evening, the team will leave for Mettur dam in Tamil Nadu.
Top officials of Karnataka Water Resources Department including Principal Secretary Rakesh Singh would be accompanying the team. On Thursday, Mr Patil held a meeting of senior officials and told reporters that the central study team, during its two-day visit, will be briefed on poor rainfall in the region and water level in all four reservoirs.
The team, which would be accompanied by representatives of Karnataka and Tamil Nadu, would also see the withering crops due to non-release of water into canals in the Cauvery basin in the state.
Belagavi session to discuss Mahadayi row
Giving in to the demand of people of north Karnataka region, the state government has set aside two days exclusively to discuss the long pending Mahadayi water diversion issue in the forthcoming winter session of the state legislature in Belagavi to be held during the last week of November at Suvarna Vidhan Soudha. Speaking to mediapersons in Belagavi on Thursday, Speaker K.B. Koliwad said that as per the constitutional directives, the winter session has to be completed before December 15 and hence, the session should commence atleast in the last week of November. The dates would be decided after discussions with the state cabinet, Koliwad said. He assured that at least two days would be set aside for debates over the long pending Mahadayi water sharing issue.
