Chennai: At the high-level meeting on Thursday to be chaired by the Union Water Resources Minister, Uma Bharti, Tamil Nadu will ask the Union Government to ensure that Karnataka abides by the final award of the Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal (CWDT) and releases the pending quantum of water without any further delay.
The high-level Tamil Nadu delegation led by PWD Minister Edappadi K Palanisamy will represent the state at the meeting in New Delhi, which is taking place on the directions of the Supreme Court, will passionately push its case for release of nearly 60 tmcft water pending as of this month. Besides the Minister, Chief Secretary P. Rama Mohana Rao, PWD principal secretary S.K. Prabhakar and Cauvery technical cell chairman R. Subramanian will also represent the state at the meeting.
Highly placed sources told Deccan Chronicle that Tamil Nadu would reiterate its long-held position that non-release of water from Karnataka could affect the food security of the state since the Cauvery Delta region stares at “severe drought.”
“Our delegation would brief the meeting about the current situation in the Delta region and how desperate the farmers are without required amount of water being released for irrigation. They are hoping to raise at least one samba crop this season. That is possible only if the water that is pending is released,” a top government official said.
Quoting the CWDT final award, Tamil Nadu will point out that it should have received 100 tmcft as on September 5. “But as on that date, the water realised at Biligundulu is just 35.915 tmcft,” the official said.
The delegation will also press for constitution of Cauvery Management Board and Cauvery Regulatory Committee as within four weeks as directed by the Supreme Court. The official said the main prayer before the meeting would be to nudge Karnataka to strictly go by the final award of the CWDT which has mandated release of 192 tmcft of water to the state.
“Since the CWDT is the final word on issues related to Cauvery, we would want the orders of the CWDT implemented in letter and spirit. This will be our main talking point on Thursday,” the official said.
Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa, who held a high-level meeting on Tuesday at her hospital room on Cauvery issue, has dictated the speech to be read out at the high-level meeting on behalf of the state.
