Bengaluru: A modification petition filed before the Supreme Court on Saturday evening seeking immediate hearing of its plea to restrict the release of Cauvery water to 10,000 cusecs per day for six days only, is expected to come up for hearing on Monday.
Sources told Deccan Chronicle that the SC will be holding a special hearing of the modification petition in the morning. “We are going to present all facts and figures before the apex court and the circumstances under which Karnataka is not in a position to release the water sought by Tamil Nadu. We are hopeful that our prayer will be considered by the court.”
A decision to file the modification petition in the apex court was taken after an all-party meeting held here last week which felt the state could not release 15,000 cusecs to Tamil Nadu in view of low storage in four reservoirs in the Cauvery basin.
Meanwhile, a meeting of Cauvery Supervisory Committee, headed by Union Water Resources Secretary Shashi Shekhar, will meet on Monday in Delhi, to decide on the quantum of Cauvery water to be released to Tamil Nadu and other states.The court had directed Tamil Nadu to approach the Supervisory Committee, set up to implement the award of the Cauvery Water Dispute Tribunal (CWDT), within three days for the release of Cauvery water as per the final order of the Tribunal. Chief Secretaries of Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Kerala and Puducherry besides officials of Central Water Commission will attend the meeting of the Committee.
According to sources, Karnataka is expected to contend that the demand by TN for 61 tmcft water holds good only when normal rainfall occurs. However, Karnataka has received deficit rainfall this time resulting in poor inflow into the Cavery basin reservoirs. The demand of TN was 'unjustified' as it was dependent on predictions of the IMD. The rain in Hassan, Chikmagalur and Kodagu was much less. "We are not in a position to release water for one crop of our farmers whereas the Mettur Dam has a storage of 30 plus tmcft water and even has good underground water There is no hope of flow into our dams as South West Monsoon has almost come to an end whereas TN is expecting good rains from the North West Monsoon.”
The sources said during good rains, Karnataka had to release 94 tmcft from June to August out of the total 192 tmcft to be released to TN in a year. But, with no sufficient water in dams of Karnataka, some districts are going to face severe drinking water crisis in the coming days. The water situation is grave and the dams would become empty if Karnataka releases 61 tmcft water as sought by TN, sources said.
