The first meeting of the Supervisory Committee on the Cauvery dispute was held here on Saturday, with the Tamil Nadu Government demanding water for June, as stipulated in the tribunal’s award.
In response, the Chairman, Central Water Commission, noted that since the previous water year was a deficit year, all major reservoirs in Tamil Nadu and Karnataka in the Cauvery Basin had little storages at the end of the water year 2012-13.
He said in view of the storage position and the corresponding water demands of both Tamil Nadu and Kerala for the first 10 days of June and the anticipation of monsoons, the storage position and allocation would be reviewed in the next meeting of the committee due to be held on June 12.
“The live storage in all the four reservoirs in Cauvery basin in Karnataka as on 31.05.2013 is 3.77 TMC and corresponding live storage in Mettur (Tamil Nadu) is 3.73 TMC (thousand million cubic feet). As such both the States have almost the same live storages in their reservoir,” he said, and added that the actual position on inflows would be known only after the rain begins.
The Supervisory Committee meeting was held in pursuance to the Supreme Court’s direction dated May 10, 2013 wherein it issued directions for the constitution of such as committee under the chairmanship of Secretary, Ministry of Water Resources.