Cauvery water row: Siddaramaiah reaches Uma Bharti's court for help

Bengaluru: Chief Minister Siddaramaiah met Union Water Resources Minister Uma Bharti in Delhi and explained to her the  circumstances under which Karnataka has deferred release of 6,000 cusecs of Cauvery water to Tamil Nadu which was ordered by the Supreme Court a couple of days ago.

According to information reaching here from New Delhi, the Chief Minister, accompanied by his senior ministers, Mr D.K. Shivakumar, Mr T.B. Jayachandra and Mr M.B. Patil, also appealed to her not to give consent to the constitution of Cauvery Management Board (CMB) as people feared that it would take control of all four reservoirs in Cauvery Basin-powers  presently vested with the Karnataka government. The apex court had ordered the constitution of the board in 4 weeks.

The meeting lasted for around 30 minutes. Giving a patient hearing to the Karnataka CM, the Union minister reportedly promised to consult officials concerned before taking any decision on constituting the CMB.

After the meeting, Mr Siddaramaiah told reporters that he explained to Ms Uma Bharti the current situation in Cauvery basin and poor storage of water in all four reservoirs in the basin due to failure of monsoon. "We are optimistic that the Union government will take a suitable decision at the earliest", he added.

Later, Mr Siddaramaiah went to meet the state’s counsel in the Supreme Court Mr F.A. Nariman to discuss the legal course of action in the wake of Karnataka deferring its decision to release water to TN till the matter was discussed in the special session on Friday.