Mysuru: The stand-off between the state and Tamil Nadu on release of Cauvery water dominated the inauguration of the 11-day Mysuru Dasara festivities here on Saturday. While noted litterateur, Channaveera Kanavi did the honours with a puja to Goddess Chamundeshwari atop the Chamundi Hills, CM Siddaramaiah admitted on the occasion that the festival would be a simple affair this year owing to the Cauvery crisis and the erratic rainfall in the state.
He defended state’s inability to release water to Tamil Nadu, saying all four reservoirs in the Cauvery catchment area had received 48 per cent less inflow of just 129 tmc, as against the expected 257 tmc due to the 29 per cent deficit rainfall in these parts.
“We don’t have water for four lakh acres of cultivated land for our farmers and Tamil Nadu is asking water for its Samba crop. Our South West Monsoon ends on October 15, but they get the North West monsoon till December. The forecast for it is good, and so is their ground water level,” he noted.
Justifying the state’s decision not to release any more water after complying with the SC’s initial orders, the Chief Minister said it had no choice in the matter as it had 27.6 tmc of water in its reservoirs and the demand for drinking water was 26 tmc. “ We need water for drinking. A final decision on the latest order of the court will be taken following an all party meeting,” he added.
Contending that the water sharing agreements reached between the princely state of Mysuru, the British and the Madras Presidency in 1892 and 1924 were unjust to the state, he regretted that Karnataka continued to suffer even today as a result.
“The 1924 agreement was valid for 50 years, but we were bound by it for much longer. It was only in 1990 that the Cauvery tribunal was formed, and in 1991 it gave an interim award for release of 205 tmc of water to Tamil Nadu. And in 2007 it gave a final order to release 192 tmc to it in a normal year. Except for five years when we could not release water owing to poor rainfall, we have released more than 192 tmc all other years,” he said.
The CM later kick-started the nine-day Dasara Sports by handing over a sports tattoo to noted sports personality, Ashwini Ponnappa and Para Olympic medal winner, Deepa Mallik. At least 25 physically challenged children enjoyed a spread of 25 varieties of food along with district minister, Dr H C Mahadevappa to inaugurate the Dasara food festival.
